The One With Ross Without Rachel
by Exintaris
Summary: A very AU version of the Break Up and what follows. Warning: not for lobster-lovers.
1. Bang bang my baby shot me down

**The One With Ross Without Rachel**

Author's Note: Finally, I commit myself to this one, which I have been meditating for some while (thanks to Cress for helpful discussion, but she is not to be held responsible for anything here). It is definitely angst-ridden, and I give fair warning: it is not going to please Ross-and-Rachel true believers, or indeed any who think extremely highly of Ross (maybe I should point out that the thoughts I make him have do not necessarily represent accurately what happened or what was said, as shown in the show; sometimes they are distorted by his confusion of what was said with what he thinks was meant, for instance).

I hope that, nevertheless, this will appear reasonably fair to Ross, also to Rachel (who cannot be considered entirely blameless in the Big Fat Break-Up as it is presented in the show, though to my mind she is far less to blame than Ross), and even to Chloe. Here I might comment that we know little about Chloe except that she evidently has a crush on Ross, to the extent that she doesn't care if he's married, she has a touch of kleptomania (since she stole his watch and says "I do that"), and she's generous-hearted enough to think it a good thing if Ross and Rachel can get back together.

We all know the scene from The One With The Morning After (3,16), don't we? Ross wakes up to find himself spread across the bed. He straightens himself out and looks in a melancholy way at the empty space where Rachel should be. Then he lies down again with the quilt over his head. Enter Chloe with a cheerful "Morning!" He sits bolt upright, with a shocked expression, that suggests he's only just remembered that she's there and why, and maybe also that he is immediately feeling remorse. His behaviour later when he hears Rachel's message seems to imply that.

All very fine, but something important is being overlooked. At a late stage in his argument with Rachel (not long after Phoebe has said that it's 9.15, presumably pm, so they've been arguing since, what, lunchtime at latest? This episode is _riddled_ with chronological and other problems, but let's not get into that now), Ross says, "Don't you realise, none of this would've ever happened if I didn't think at that same moment you were having sex with Mark?" If he really believed that Rachel was cheating on him, then I suggest that remorse would be the last thing on his mind when he woke and realised what he'd done, and the very different sequence of events that I suggest could have unfolded. I may be original in this, but I doubt if I have read a tenth of the R&R fics, so can't be sure. My version of events is bound to coincide to some extent with Imagine What If's current story, Where Have You Gone?, but I have no intention of stealing anyone's thunder. But as a congenital "what if" person, I constantly return to the Ross-and-Rachel relationship in the early seasons.

Disclaimer: The Friends characters do not belong to me, but to Bright, Kauffman and Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Their use is not intended for profit, only for entertainment.

Some of the dialogue and actions in Chapter 1 come from Episode 3,16.

The title of Ch. 1 is that of a song used at the beginning of Kill Bill vol. I, in Nancy Sinatra's version, but originally made popular by Cher (and written by Sonny).

-----

Chapter 1: Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down

Ross woke, and immediately wished he hadn't. His head did _not_ feel good. He must have drunk way more than was good for him last night. Now, why had he done that? He was finding it hard to remember the previous evening in detail. Discovering that he was spread across the bed, he shifted around to lie straight, realising at once that of course Rachel was not there. He looked at the empty place mournfully, because he remembered now. That was why he had got drunk; he had broken up with Rachel.

For a moment his sadness over that almost overwhelmed him. Unwilling to get up and face the first day of a life without Rachel, he lay down again, pulling the quilt over his head and trying not to think about anything. But his mind would not cooperate. It kept working away, trying to tell him that there was something else, something really important, that he was forgetting …

"Morning!" said Chloe cheerfully as she walked into the room, feeling refreshed and ready to face the day.

Rearing up, Ross seemed to feel his headache double in intensity when he saw Chloe's smiling face. _That_ was what he hadn't remembered! He slept with Chloe, the girl from the copy shop. Now it all began to come back: his fight with Rachel, her wanting a break, his despairing call later, hearing the voice of that bastard Mark, who was obviously in the apartment, though Rachel at first would not admit it, his realisation that she was cheating on him … After that he began to get drunk, and Chloe kept trying to cheer him up, and finally they started dancing and she looked up at him so sympathetically and kissed him, and he kissed her back and things had gone on from there. He didn't remember making love with Chloe very well, but he knew he had, because one thing was clear in his mind. He remembered thinking, when he was fully committed to what he was doing with Chloe, indeed reaching a point of no return, that this would pay out the little bitch for breaking his heart and cheating on him with that bastard Mark.

Chloe looked a little startled at his violent reaction to her greeting. "Did you forget I was here?" she said, sounding piqued.

He tried to smile. "I guess I did, momentarily. I, um, have a bit of a hangover. But I shouldn't have." He tried to think fast of something nice to say, and could only come up with, "Thanks, Chloe. You were … you were just what I needed, right then."

She didn't look too impressed. "Kind of relieved your frustration, did I?" she said a little acidly.

"No, no," he said hastily. "You were sweet and, and wonderful, and I am truly thankful that you came home with me and stayed, because … well, I had drunk a lot."

She grinned. "Ross, you were_ fine_." She stepped forward and tousled his hair. "I always liked you, you know."

He found it easier to smile at her the second time. All right, maybe there was the hint of a silver lining to this great big dark cloud that had moved in over him. Here was someone who seemed to truly care about him – unlike Rachel.

He still couldn't understand how she could do this to him, when they had been so close. Surely she hadn't been lying when she said she loved him before? It seemed like things had only started going wrong when she got her job, with Mark's help. Had she started cheating even then? No, that was really hard to believe, and he could remember her behaving very lovingly after that. But maybe she was already flirting with the slimy bastard, and he saw a chance later and moved in on her. But why had she given in to him?

He sighed deeply. Chloe looked out of the bedroom.

"Still got her on your mind?" she said, sounding sympathetic.

"We were together for a whole year," he said miserably. "Yesterday was our anniversary."

"Yeah, you told me," she said, nodding. "Say, Ross, could I make a cup of coffee? I have to be at work soon, and I don't have time to go back to my apartment."

"Sure, go ahead and help yourself," he said. "I have to shave and dress."

As he prepared for the day, Ross kept going over it all in his mind. Did Rachel perhaps only get together with Mark because she was mad after their fight? He had mentioned Mark then, and that had certainly set her off and led to her saying she wanted to break up. So maybe she called in Mark to get back at him, the same way he used Chloe to get back at her. He had to face the fact that he would probably never know. He wondered if Joey had ever been in this position, then shook his head: everything Joey had ever said suggested that in his relationships he was the one who did the cheating, not the one who was cheated on. He guessed Joey would advise him to stop obsessing about Rachel and concentrate on Chloe now. Easy for him to say; he had never been really in love.

Later, over some breakfast, he was chatting to Chloe fairly easily when the doorbell rang. Surprised, he went to answer it, to find a happy-looking Rachel gazing up at him. He frowned, and the smile left her face.

"D-didn't you get my message?" she faltered.

What with one thing and another, Ross had not checked his messages that morning. He had not thought it would be important but, from the way she was looking at him, evidently it was.

"What did it say?" he said, the words coming out rather weakly. It was so hard to be as mad at her as she deserved, when she was looking at him like that.

"W-well, I had been trying to reach you for a long time," she said. "I had to tell you, there is nothing between me and Mark, I was sorry about the whole break-up thing – "

"Hold on," he said. "Nothing between you and Mark? Then what the hell was he doing in the apartment?"

"He, he called after you walked out," Rachel said. "He was just gonna leave a message, but then, he could tell I wasn't happy, and he insisted on coming round, and, and, well," she was looking at him pleadingly now, "I know, it looks bad, but I let him in because I needed someone to talk to – "

Ross gave a derisive laugh. "Talk to? Yeah, right! I bet you weren't talking much!"

Rachel went white. "You, you think we …" She made a choking noise.

"Yeah!" Ross snarled, now getting really mad at her innocent act. "Maybe not before, but last night, _yeah!_"

Tears began to trickle down Rachel's cheeks. "You, you really think I'd cheat on you? Don't you remember me saying how glad I was you'd called? Would, would I say that if … Ross, you have to believe me! I swear, there is nothing between me and Mark!"

"What's going on here?" said Chloe, appearing behind Ross, coffee cup in hand. "Can I help?"

If anything, Rachel went whiter. "What's _she_ doing here?" she said to Ross, suddenly sounding not sad but mad. "Ross, did you – "

"YEAH!" he cried. "You slept with Mark, and I slept with Chloe! What's good for the goose is good for the gander!"

Rachel looked between Chloe and Ross for a moment, her eyes frantic, her mouth working as if she was trying to say something but could not get it out. She started, "But I didn't – ", then broke off, whirled round, and ran away. Ross watched her go with a certain satisfaction. He felt he had shown her he could not be fooled or taken for granted.

"You know, Ross, you're not gonna want to hear this," said Chloe rather tentatively, "but I think I believe her. She sounded sort of … like she meant it."

Ross snorted incredulously. "She's always been able to sound sincere. I remember, in high school … well, anyway, let's not talk about it. You had enough breakfast?"

She nodded, looking at him slightly uncertainly and seeming a little tense.

"Maybe we could meet again," he said, trying to give her his most winning smile.

She relaxed and smiled. "Okay, Ross," she said. "Yes, I'd like that. Let's exchange numbers and stuff – and I must find my shoes."

-----

Monica and Phoebe were talking enthusiastically about Waxine when the door was flung open and Rachel burst in, face tear-stained, expression wild.

"Ross thinks I cheated with Mark!" she cried to Monica. "And, and, he had a woman with him … Oh my God, what am I gonna do?" She hurled herself onto the couch, crying her heart out.

Monica and Phoebe looked at each other in utter amazement, frozen by the suddenness of it.

Author's End Note: a short start, but this is a good break point. It may also be a good point to say, this is _not_ going to be a long drawn out saga.


	2. Conversations

Chapter 2: Conversations

Author's Note: Well, I finally drove myself to stop wasting time and get on with this; sorry for the delay.

Here's another quote that might be unfamiliar, from 3,17 (The One Without the Ski Trip); I confess I had not appreciated its potential significance before. Carol is speaking: "Look, I, I, I am sorry that Rachel dumped you 'cause she fell in love with that Mark guy, and you are the innocent victim in all of this, but don't punish your friends for what Rachel did to you."

Clearly, this is what Ross has told her when giving his version of the story earlier in the episode. The point is, this must come days, at least, after the break-up. So, there is a case for saying that Ross never really accepted Rachel's account of that night, which we know from the show to be the true version of events. He also seems to indicate this much later, in 4,18 ("I still think I was right about that whole Mark thing", in the discussion of how he has become a crazy, jealous person. 4,18, by the way, also shows off Ross's over-active imagination, that leads him to weave detailed fantasies without a shred of real evidence, as I have him doing in this chapter). However, would he react quite as he does in 3,19 to Rachel's date with Mark, if he already thought she was actually in love with Mark? Well, maybe (Of course, there is an only too likely alternative explanation for these potential discrepancies, that this is one of the many places where the show's producers and writers did not make the effort to maintain consistency sigh).

At any rate, for my purposes this is a very useful quote.

It very quickly became clear to Monica and Phoebe that Rachel would not be going to work that morning, if at all. While Monica continued with her efforts to calm her down, Phoebe called Rachel's office, to get her fellow assistant Sophie.

"Hi, this is Phoebe Buffay, a friend of Rachel's," said Phoebe. "Can you tell your boss, there's no way Rachel can get in to work on time, and she probably won't make it at all today. She's, um, she's had some very bad news."

"Ooh, I'm sorry to hear that," said Sophie, oozing sympathy. "Is this something to do with her and Ross? They seemed really mad at each other last night, because he came in when she was working late and started getting in the way and distracting her."

"Yeah?" said Phoebe. "Well, yeah, they have broken up, and Ross thinks – " and then she stopped, realising that she shouldn't be letting out details like this to a stranger.

"What does Ross think?" said Sophie, sounding interested. "I got the idea, he was very possessive about her. He even grabbed Mark when he was kissing his girlfriend, because he thought he was kissing Rachel." She giggled, then drew a sharp breath and said, "Ooh! Does he still think there's something going on between her and Mark?"

Phoebe sighed. There seemed no point in denying it. Perhaps it would get Rachel sympathy at work. "Yeah."

"Well, I wouldn't put it past Mark, to want to get together with her," said Sophie in a thoughtful way. "He's a bit of a player, if you know what I mean, and I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her. But she doesn't seem to notice, and I certainly never saw her give him any kind of encouragement. She kept it all at the friendly level."

"Mmm," went Phoebe. "Well, thanks for that, though I bet it wouldn't cut any ice with Ross. Look, I must get back to her, so ..."

"Oh right," said Sophie. "I'll tell Joanna, and, well, tell Rachel I'm sorry to hear it."

When Phoebe got off the phone, it was to see that Joey had come in and was sitting opposite Rachel, who was tearfully explaining to him what was wrong, while Monica continued to hug her.

Joey's face got gloomier and gloomier as Rachel continued. "Man, this is really bad," he said. "Rachel, I'm sorry, really sorry." An idea seemed to strike him suddenly. "Hey, this girl he was with – did you get a good look at her? Because I think I might know who it was."

"I don't care!" Rachel wailed. "I don't wanna think about it, even! Who were you calling, Phoebe?" she said in an abrupt switch of attention.

"Your office, to warn that you'd be late for work, if you showed up at all," said Phoebe succinctly.

"Oh," said Rachel. "D-did you speak to Joanna?"

"No, Sophie," said Phoebe. "I'm sorry, Rach, I kinda let out that you and Ross had broken up, and she guessed that it had something to do with Mark. But I didn't tell it all."

Rachel sighed. "Th-that's okay, Pheebs. I couldn't have kept it hidden. I, I guess you were right to call; I certainly don't feel like going to work at the moment."

"But will you be all right on your own, sweetie?" said Monica anxiously. "Because sooner or later Phoebe and I will have to go to work."

"I'll stay with her," said Joey. "I've got nothing to do today, really."

"Oh Joey, you're such a friend!" Rachel cried, reaching forward to take his hands and look into his eyes. "Once, I thought Ross was my true friend," she went on in a sad little voice. "I don't understand how he can think so meanly of me, to believe that I would cheat on him."

Since none of the others could understand it either, they did not comment, and all sat in silence for a while. Then Monica took in an audible breath, as if she had just resolved to do something, and stood up.

"I'm gonna call Chandler," she said decisively. "He deserves to know what's going on."

-----

Ross was in a bad mood when he entered the Museum. The more he thought about it, the madder he got at Rachel. It did not help that his head still ached and his stomach was queasy.

"Ah, Ross," said Dr. Ledbetter, as Ross entered the foyer. Seeming to blench a little as Ross turned a very dark glance on him, he said more tentatively, "Er – is this a bad time?"

Involuntarily Ross sighed. "Is it something that can wait, Donald?" he said as calmly as he could. "I have to confess, just at the moment I'm really not in good shape." Feeling a sudden need to bare his soul, he went on, "My, my girlfriend ... she broke up with me last night, and then I discovered she was _cheating_ on me!" He came close to shouting the last words.

Dr. Ledbetter looked embarrassed. "Oh, oh dear," he said weakly. "Well, no, it's nothing that can't wait a while ... but if you _could_ drop in, later on today ..."

Relieved, Ross promised that he would, collected his post, and escaped to his office. Going through his post did not calm him down much, since none of it was of any interest, and checking his emails contributed to his bad mood, since so many were not only spam but sex-related. When he was done with that, he sat and thought, unable to get down to work.

Suddenly, something occurred to him. Knowing Rachel the way he did, he would bet she had gone running straight back to Monica and started crying all over her. If he did not act fast, she might have everyone believing her version of the story. He would have to call Monica at once, Chandler too. But to his irritation he found both lines were busy. It occurred to him that they were talking to each other, which did not improve his temper. Growling to himself, he looked for something work-related to do quickly, aiming to try again in a minute or two.

But then a colleague came in with a query that had to be dealt with right there and then, and before he knew it most of half an hour had gone by. At least, he thought as he picked up the phone, he had given a semblance of working normally. He presumed Monica would not have left for her diner yet, so tapped in her number. She picked up.

"Monica Geller speaking," she said in a rather hoarse voice.

"Hi, it's me," he said. "Look – "

"What do you want?" she said very sharply, overriding him.

"Hey, is that any way to speak to your brother?" he said, hurt.

"When my brother has behaved like the biggest jerk ever, yes," she said wrathfully. "Do you know how deeply you've hurt Rachel? Talk about a double whammy: not just accusing her of cheating on you, which is ridiculous, but cheating on her!"

"We were on a break!" he snapped. "And why is it so ridiculous? I heard his voice, he was _there_ when I called, and she lied about it, though she had to admit it in the end. Why would she do that, unless – "

"Ross," she broke in again, almost shouting, "do you know what she said to me this morning, just after she came out of the shower and I found out about the break-up? She said, Mark had been there, yes, but just to talk, and she said, what was it, yeah, when they talked it over she realised how much she loved you, and you had problems but she wanted to make it work. Does _that_ sound like someone who's been cheating on you?"

Ross snorted. "It sounds like someone's missed her vocation. She could have been a great actress."

"Actress!" Monica shrieked. "If you can believe the state she was in when she came in here, and cried all over Phoebe and me, was _acting_, you'll believe anything! And here's another thing, mister smart-ass: if it's okay for you to sleep with someone else when you're on a break, why would it have been wrong if she _had _slept with Mark, even though she didn't?"

Ross slammed down the phone and put his head in his hands, barely able to see for rage. That his sister should take the side of that little bitch, against her own brother! He ground his teeth and clenched his fists, and for a moment was aware of nothing but the pulsing in his temples. Then he breathed out hard and made deliberate efforts to calm down. As he began to think again, he realised that he had missed a chance to question Monica. She might have seen something that, though she didn't realise it, would prove him right – not that he had any doubts, but it was always best to have good arguments available when trying to convince someone else. Of course, Monica would be ready to sympathise with Rachel; they had been friends for ever. But Chandler had been his friend, even before he began to know Monica properly; surely he would be ready to listen. He tried his phone.

"Chandler Bing," said Chandler in a wary-sounding voice.

"Chandler, it's me," Ross began. "I don't know if you've heard – "

"Monica only got off the phone to me a few minutes ago," Chandler said abruptly. "Ross, have you totally lost your mind? How can you possibly believe Rachel has been cheating on you?"

Involuntarily Ross moaned with sheer frustration. Rachel had evidently done such a good job on Monica that she was calling everyone to blacken his name. He strove to keep control of his temper.

"Chandler, he was _there_, that bastard Mark was _there_," he said, trying for a reasonable tone. "Are you really gonna believe, he just went round, and she let him in, to _talk_?"

"Well, Monica pointed out, there was no one else around for her to talk with," Chandler said. "Joey and I were at the club, Phoebe was out with her diplomat and Monica went along to be his interpreter's date ..." Suddenly he snickered. "Sounds like Monica had a real good time with the interpreter – "

"Oh, so she was out late, was she?" Ross interrupted, pouncing on a new piece of data. "Do you know when she got in?"

"No, only that it was late," Chandler said, sounding bewildered. "What difference does it make?"

"Why, Mark could have been there and gone before Monica got back," Ross said triumphantly. "She can't give Rachel an alibi that proves she never went to bed with him."

"Would she do that, when she knew Monica might walk in at any moment?" said Chandler doubtfully.

"H'm," went Ross, reluctantly seeing the force of this argument. "Well, I guess she might have been sort of, um, seduced into it ..."

"You think Rachel was so mad at you, she would jump into bed with someone else straight away? Doesn't seem like her." Chandler sounded very sceptical.

"It's not like he was a stranger," said Ross slowly, trying to develop his thoughts. And then suddenly he had the answer, and snapped his fingers in triumph. "Of course – why didn't I see it? She, she must have started, uh, having feelings for him some, some time back, but she was, uh, all confused and uncertain, because, um, because she still had some loyalty to me, like Carol did when she first got, ah, involved with Susan." He hurried on, knowing he was not being too coherent but desperate to get all his idea out before Chandler interrupted. "Well, well, Mark gets in there, he sees a chance, because she's all mad at me, so, so, he makes his pass, and, and she has these feelings for him, and she, uh, she realises, she has no reason not to, to act on them, because, well, we're all broken up, and, yeah, now I think about it, maybe that's why she wanted to break up, so she'd be free to – " He suppressed a groan at the mental image. After a pause, in which Chandler said nothing, he sighed very deeply. "I guess, maybe she's really in love with him, which would make it ... not _quite_ so bad – " But after that he couldn't continue, and had to stop himself from actually breaking down.

"Ross," said Chandler in a kind voice that nevertheless held more than a hint of strained forbearance. "Ross, old buddy – could this _be_ any more unbelievable? You don't have a shred of evidence for all this. I haven't seen a sign, not one single solitary sign, that she was falling out of love with you, let alone that she was in love with someone else."

"Well, I have," said Ross, suddenly angry. "All the time at that goddamn job! She's had no time for me. Bet she had time for Mark, though, if he dropped in 'to talk'." He snorted contemptuously as he imagined it.

"Ross," said Chandler, his tone now sounding very much as if he was losing his patience, "we've all had to stay late at our jobs sometimes. Why, that night of your second date, you spent so long in the Museum you missed your dinner at Sorrentino's, didn't you?"

Ross winced. That was a night he had thought he would always feel happy to remember. "Don't remind me," he growled. "I thought, I thought she loved me then."

"She _does_ love you," Chandler snapped. "We all know that, we can see it. You'd better do some hard thinking, Ross, and see if you really, truly believe all this, this fairy tale you've been spouting to me. You're this close to losing her for ever, and I don't think you want that, really, not deep down. Now, I don't know about you, but I have to do some work." He put down the phone sharply.

Ross squeezed his eyes shut, as if by doing so he could shut out the memory of Chandler's words. His oldest friend, and ... how did she do it? What was it about her that made even Chandler lose his critical faculties? He sighed deeply. Were they all going to turn against him? It certainly looked like it. Phoebe could be very soft-hearted, and evidently she had been there when Rachel did her crying act, and Joey ... Joey always acted like a brother to all three of the women.

So Chandler expected him to kiss and make up with Rachel, did he? His jaw set. He'd show him; he'd show all of them.

-----

Jasmine was surprised to receive a call in her lunch break from her brother Isaac, so soon after his previous call.

"Hey, Jazzie," he said. "Got another bulletin for you, on dinosaur dude Ross."

Jasmine froze. Phoebe had been in quite a state over this Ross-Rachel business when she came in to work that morning, and telling her that Isaac's co-worker Chloe was the woman in the case had not improved her mood.

"Go on," she said resignedly.

"Well, he waltzed in here just now and took Chloe out for an early lunch. Looks like he's getting real interested in her."

"Is that so?" said Jasmine. "Ross and Rachel really have broken up, then. Gunther will be pleased."

Isaac snickered. "From what you tell me, Gunther wouldn't stand a chance with hot Rachel."

Jasmine sighed. It was only too true. "Well, at least he won't have to see her with someone else that comes into Central Perk all the time."

-----

Chandler was not very surprised when Ross didn't show up in Central Perk at lunchtime, nor when Phoebe arrived a bit later than usual and told them what she'd just heard, that the woman Ross had been with last night was Chloe, the copy shop girl who obviously had a crush on him, and that he was now having lunch with her.

"Well," he said, "it shows Ross has taste, at least, though, if I had the choice, I'd still pick Rachel."

Phoebe gave him a sharp glance, as if she thought he was not taking this seriously enough.

"How is Rachel, anyway?" she said. "Joey, I thought you were staying with her."

Joe had already explained this to Chandler. "She went to bed," he said. "Said she was tired, she didn't get much sleep last night – which I can believe. I peeked in and she really did seem out, so I left a note for her and came down here."

He looked unhappily at Chandler and Phoebe. "What are we gonna do, guys? This is really serious."

"I think we need to, like, stage an intervention," said Phoebe firmly.

"We should run that by Monica, don't you think?" said Chandler. "She'd want to be in on something like that."

Phoebe sighed and shook her head. "She'll be in that diner until late, and I have this feeling, we must act fast, before it's, like, past the point of no return."

Chandler sighed. "I think it is already," he said. "If you'd heard this amazing substandard soap plot that Ross was developing, all to fit his crazy idea that Rachel had something going with Mark, and clearly he believed every word of it ..."

They looked at him enquiringly, and he told them as much as he could remember of the conversation.

"That settles it," said Phoebe decisively. "We must act _now_. Eat up and drink up, guys, because we're going after Ross."

"Shouldn't we let Monica know what we're doing?" said Joey uneasily.

Phoebe thought for a moment. "Uh-huh, okay, let's call her from the phone here, and _then_ we go."

Her eyes were flashing; for a moment Chandler had this picture of a warrior queen heading out for battle. He wasn't at all sure that this was the best mood in which to approach Ross, but he didn't see any way of stopping things – unless Monica forbade it.

"I'll do the phoning," he said, jumping up.

End note: if I don't stop here, this chapter will get entirely too long, I suspect, so ... more soon.


	3. Confrontations

Chapter 3: Confrontations

Author's Note: Sorry this has taken a long time, but it's a crucial chapter, and I keep having doubts about how to handle some sections. I hope I have now got it more or less right. It's turned out to be a long chapter.

Thanks to Cress for correcting my American English – minor changes have been made to preceding chapters – and to my reviewers for being so ready to engage with the story. To those who wonder why this Ross is not more like the Ross of The One With The Morning After, the answer is, because his experience has been different. He has not heard Rachel's phone message, in which she says she does not want to break up and apologises for putting Ross through it. Therefore he will, to my mind, still be feeling despondency because they have broken up, but if he believes Rachel has had sex with Mark anger is most likely to be his dominant emotion, given the pathological jealousy and suspicion he has already displayed concerning Mark, and this will surely suppress any feelings of guilt he might have over going to bed with Chloe.

Now on with the story ...

-----

"Oh god, Chandler, I can't talk now," Monica said fretfully. "There's a rush on. Just tell Phoebe I don't think it's a good idea. We need to give Ross time to calm down."

"Okay, I'll pass that on," said Chandler. He hesitated. "Er ... cook well." He replaced the phone and hurried over to Phoebe and Joey. Phoebe was looking impatient, Joey uneasy.

"Monica doesn't think it's a good idea," Chandler said. "She thinks Ross needs time to calm down."

"No, no!" cried Phoebe. "We must, like, strike while the iron is hot! We have to get these crazy ideas out of his head before they get stuck in there too firmly, like, y'know, all that evolution stuff. Come on!"

She set off energetically, and after a moment Joey followed. Shrugging fatalistically, Chandler followed. Maybe he would be able to exercise a moderating influence.

Phoebe had not gone more than a few yards when she paused. "I just thought: where do we go to find Ross?" she said. "I mean, if he's at lunch ..."

"Let's go to the copy shop," Joey suggested. "I'm sure Chloe's the girl he slept with, and if she isn't there, Isaac will be, and he might know where they went."

It wasn't far to the copy shop from Central Perk, and to Chandler's relief Chloe was indeed there.

"Hi guys!" she said cheerfully. "Did you enjoy last night?"

Phoebe pushed forward. "Are you the one who slept with Ross last night?" she said in a hostile tone.

Chloe looked taken aback. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes, I am," she said coolly. "What's your problem?"

Phoebe made a contemptuous noise. "Yeah, you look that kind – so long as you get yours, what do you care if someone gets hurt?"

"Phoebe, for god's sake – " Chandler began, but Chloe overrode him.

"I _like_ Ross, a lot," she said fiercely, "and he was _hurting_, anyone could see it. I guess you must be a friend of Rachel's. Well, the way I heard it, she broke up with him, and there's all this Mark business that I still don't have straight. But Ross seems convinced she was cheating on him – "

"She was not! He's crazy jealous, and he'll persuade himself of anything where Mark's concerned!" Phoebe yelled.

Chandler decided to break in before things got any worse. "Just tell us, is Ross back in his office?" he asked.

"I guess so," said Chloe. "That's where he said he was going."

"Come on, Phoebe, let's go to the Museum," Chandler said firmly.

"Right!" said Phoebe, darting a last furious glance at Chloe before marching out. She growled and muttered for a while about bimbos and dumbasses, ignoring Chandler's and Joey's rather alarmed glances at her.

By the time they reached the Museum, it was past the end of Chandler's lunch break, but he felt he could not leave Phoebe to wreak havoc unchecked, as she was only too likely to do in her present frame of mind. "Unexpected family emergency," he muttered as he began to assemble an excuse. "No time to inform. Won't happen again."

"Let me do the talking," he said firmly to Phoebe as they entered the Museum, and he asked the nearest official-looking person where they could find Dr. Geller's office. They were directed to the staff secretary's office. Chandler knocked and put his head round the door.

"We're looking for Dr. Geller," he said. "We're friends of his."

"Do you have an appointment?" the secretary said in a frosty tone.

"No, but it is a really urgent personal matter," he said, trying to look serious and pleading at the same time. He must have overdone it, because she seemed to suppress a laugh.

"Very well, go down this corridor, and it's the third door on the left," she said.

Ross looked surprised to see them, but did not seem in too bad a mood.

"Look, guys, I can't give you long," he said. "I have to see Ledbetter soon. So what is this, some kind of embassy from Rachel? She wants to say sorry?" He sounded almost mocking.

"She's got nothing to be sorry for, you jerk!" Phoebe yelled. "You're the one who should be sorry, after making this baseless accusation and sleeping with that bimbo as well!"

"Phoebe, please cool it," Chandler pleaded. "You'll only make Ross mad."

Indeed, Ross now did look rather mad, but he answered Phoebe calmly enough.

"I know that Mark was there," he said emphatically. "She finally admitted it, though at first she lied and said he wasn't. Now why would she do that, unless she had something to hide? I've been thinking about this, Chandler, and okay, maybe my previous theory _was_ a fairy tale. Maybe she's been stringing us both along, him to get help in her job and me, well, to keep as her 'faithful lover'." His words were loaded with irony. "If you'd met this guy, you'd know how unlikely it is that she'd let him in just to talk. He's, he's ... I guess he's hot, all right." Chandler detected a strong hint of jealousy and envy.

Joey was looking uneasy. "Okay, maybe there's a question to be answered, Ross," he said, "but when I went into Monica's apartment soon after Rachel came back from seeing you, she seemed really upset, in fact she was crying her eyes out."

"Sure she was upset," said Ross, still calmly. "Her little game with us both had collapsed."

Phoebe burst out again in a tone of bitterest sarcasm. "Joey, you're an actor. Why haven't you, like, recognised Rachel's potential as an actress? See, she's fooled not just Ross but all of us into believing she loves Ross, she's done it for _months _and never let her guard down once, and she made Monica and me believe she's _really _heartbroken, crying and carrying on. Believe me, we have the next Meryl Streep among us!"

Then she fixed her gaze on Ross, who was not noticeably affected by this, and suddenly her voice changed.

"Ross, please think hard about this," she said, as seriously as Chandler had ever heard her speak. "Do you really think Rachel is that kind of person, to cheat on you like you say? Do you think she could fool you or the rest of us to that extent? Look, I spoke with her co-worker Sophie, and you know what she said? She said yeah, she thought Mark had a crush on Rachel, all right, but she never saw a hint that Rachel was, like, more than friendly with him. And this is someone who sees them together a lot more than you have ever done. So, he's Rachel's friend, and she lets him in to talk because there's no one else and she's desperate to talk to someone about the situation you've gotten into. Is that so hard to believe?"

"Then why did she lie about his being there?" said Ross angrily.

"Because she knew you'd take it the wrong way and make a great big fuss, just like you're doing right now!" Phoebe cried, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. "She said to us, she was so pleased when you called, she _told _you! I guess you just think that's more acting, huh?"

Ross shook his head, looking completely unmoved. "No, what you tell me about what Sophie said just proves my point. I mean, you expect me to believe that he had a crush on her but she didn't know? But, if she did know, well then, why would she not actively discourage him, unless she had some ulterior motive?"

To Chandler it looked as if Phoebe was on the verge of exploding again. "Take it easy, Phoebe," he said urgently

But Phoebe ignored him. "You, you, you absolute _dummy!_" she screamed at Ross. "You can say that, when _you_ had a crush on Rachel for over a year and she didn't know, none of us knew!"

"Well, Joey and I knew," Chandler put in rather diffidently, "but that's not important right now. Look, Phoebe, this isn't doing any good. I think we ought to leave."

"Yeah, c'mon, Pheebs," said Joey nervously, pulling at her sleeve. "Ross clearly isn't gonna listen, and you're making a lot of noise."

As he spoke, the door opened, and two men in uniform, apparently Museum security, entered.

"There've been complaints about a lot of yelling coming from this room," one said. "Dr. Geller, are these persons bothering you?"

"Not exactly," said Ross, "but, yeah, you'll have to leave, guys. This must be disturbing my colleagues, apart from anything else."

"I wouldn't want to stay here a moment longer!" Phoebe cried furiously. "I hope you're happy with your bimbo, Mr. Cheater!" she tossed over her shoulder as she turned away. "Rachel's worth ten of her."

"Chloe will be around, not like Rachel!" Ross shouted back as they went through the door.

Phoebe's face was set as they hurried out through the Museum. "I'm sorry, guys," she said as they went down the steps. "I just ... I got so _mad_ at him sitting there on his great fat ass, so sure he was right about everything ..."

"It's understandable," said Chandler soothingly. "Look, I have to go back to work, I'm late already. But, Joey, if you can tell Monica what's happened – "

"I'll go too," said Phoebe. "I have to work this evening, real late, so I have the afternoon off. And I should be the one to tell her, because I blew it by losing my temper." She seemed genuinely penitent.

When told of the confrontation, Monica was definitely not pleased, but she acknowledged that it probably wouldn't have gone very differently if she'd been there.

"Sometimes, Ross can be such a pain in the ass," she said disspiritedly. "Well, what I think is, we'll have to set up a meeting with him. But, Phoebe, it would probably be better if you weren't there."

"That's okay," said Phoebe. "I've said my say, and at least Chandler should remember what I said, and I doubt if I could be in the same room with Ross now without hitting him. So why don't you do it tonight, when I'm at work? I have this nine o'clock appointment, would you believe? She's, like, a real career woman, busy all day – this is the only time she can make it. But she tips well and I get overtime pay, so I can't turn it down."

"Okay, I'll try to set it up with him for this evening, after I get in from work," said Monica. "Joey, you and Chandler be around, okay?" She looked thoughtful. "It might be best if we could get Rachel there and show Ross how truly hurt she is – "

Phoebe sighed and shook her head. "I really doubt she'll want anything more to do with him, but okay, maybe we ought to try. C'mon, Joey, we've left her on her own too long. We'll let you know if Rachel's ready to meet Ross, Mon, and I'll see you later."

-----

"No, no, _no!_" Rachel cried hysterically, with renewed tears. "I don't wanna speak to him, I don't wanna _see_ him, even! If he wouldn't believe me when I showed up on his doorstep, all bright and eager, how's he gonna believe me now?" She choked on a sob. "And even if he decides, he was wrong about my cheating, he certainly cheated on me! He made no attempt to hide it, it's like he wanted me to know, he wanted to _hurt_ me! How can I forgive him for that?"

Phoebe could think of nothing helpful to say. She continued to hug Rachel and pat her back gently, while Joey held her hands and looked at her mournfully.

"This is so bad," he murmured. "But we're with you, aren't we, Pheebs?"

"Damn right!" said Phoebe fiercely. "And if he won't see reason, he can go play with that stupid bitch and his stupid dinosaurs, and good riddance!"

Rachel produced a watery little snicker. "Thank you, guys, for your support," she said hoarsely. "I love you."

"We love you right back, Rach," said Phoebe, stroking her hair gently.

-----

That evening the four of them, Ross, Monica, Chandler and Joey, met in Central Perk, since they could hardly meet in the apartment, where Rachel was. Chandler noticed that Ross was looking in a very obstinate mood, and his heart sank. In fact, he noticed that everyone was looking extraordinarily serious, but this was not surprising. if they could not patch something up, this was the end of their long friendship.

"I don't know what more there is to say," Ross said brusquely.

Monica took a breath. "Well, you've heard what Phoebe had to say, including what Sophie told her. You've heard Chandler's doubts, and you've heard Joey saying that when he first saw her he believed Rachel was genuinely upset – "

"I'm sure she was," said Ross casually. "Like I said, her little scheme was exposed. That could upset anyone."

"Ross," said Monica in a very sharp voice, "if you could just let me finish without interrupting with smart-ass comments."

She paused, fixing him with a cold glare, and Ross looked a bit shaken. When it was clear that he would keep quiet, Monica resumed, her voice calm and even again.

"But you haven't heard everything I want to say. Now, I know Rachel better than any of you, because I live with her, and she tells me everything. Do you think I wouldn't notice if she was up to something, Ross? When I saw her this morning, right after her shower, she didn't show a sign of having done anything sneaky, let alone having had a man in her bed" – she held up a hand as Ross started to speak – "you may not believe it, but I can tell when she has, I know the signs. She was quite open with me about Mark being there, but she explained it all, and she said she loved you like she meant it. Are you gonna doubt my take on this? Do you think me such a bad judge of character?" She fixed a very intent gaze on him. "Do you, Ross?"

Watching, Chandler saw that Ross did look affected by what Monica had said. For a moment he seemed to be wavering, and Chandler held his breath and crossed his fingers behind his back, hoping that he might finally see sense. But then Ross's obstinate expression came back, and Chandler's hopes diminished to near vanishing point again.

"You got in late, I understand," Ross said. "Mark could have been there and gone long before you were back. You can't give Rachel an alibi for that time."

Monica sighed. "So, you won't accept my assessment, that she just did not seem like someone who had had sex the night before, let alone been cheating on you?"

Again he seemed to waver, and again his face closed. "You're so close to her," he said. "It could bias you. Look, let's face it, she's no angel. Remember how she had sex with Barry when he was her ex, making him cheat with her on his fiancée Mindy."

"Who had previously cheated with Barry on Rachel," Monica said sharply. "Well, she was quite open about it, wasn't she? She didn't hide anything."

"She didn't know about Barry and Mindy then," Ross pointed out, "so you can't justify it as revenge. The way I see it, she just used Barry to get some sex. She does that, you know – she uses people. Like when she said she was gonna stay with you right at the beginning, never thinking to ask how you felt about it."

Monica made a motion with her hand to suggest that this was quite unimportant.

"She exploits your friendship, all the time,," Ross went on. "Look at that insurance scam she wanted to use you for. And there was that bad fight over Van Damme ..."

Monica sighed in a way that clearly showed irritation. "All this has very little to do with whether she'd be likely to cheat on you or not, and nothing to do with whether I'd spot it if she did. But you still haven't answered my question. Don't you trust my judgement?"

Ross seemed reluctant to answer her directly. "Look," he said after a moment, "let's suppose, just for the sake of argument, that Rachel didn't have sex with Mark – though I'm not conceding that for a moment – I have been beginning to feel, this relationship has just become too hard." Suddenly he became excitable. "She, she's just fixated on her work, and, and she doesn't seem to care that she's, uh, neglecting me, and, well, anyway, it's got to where I just, I just can't trust her!"

He paused, seeming rather surprised at his last words, which caused an intake of breath from those listening. Then he nodded emphatically. "Yeah, yeah, that's it, I just can't trust her over this whole Mark thing. So, when we've already broken up, really, by her say-so, now seems like a good time to just let it end."

Quite involuntarily Chandler made a noise of protest, at the same time that Joey gasped in apparent shock. Monica made no sound, but she glared at Ross in a way that Chandler could not recall ever seeing. It seemed to combine grief, disappointment, and something else ... dislike, or even worse?

"Just like that?" said Joey angrily. "Now, when after all you may not be so sure she's been cheating on you, you're just gonna let her drop, because it's been a little rough on you these past few weeks? You're gonna leave it like that, without another word spoken? Dude, that's really got to hurt her – that's mean!"

"How many girls have you dumped, Joey?" Ross said sharply.

"It ... the circumstances were different," Joey protested. "I never had a great big love affair like yours with Rachel."

Ross snorted. "Love affair! That's what I thought it was, yeah. Now I'm not so sure."

"It _was_," said Monica between her teeth, now glaring at him in evident fury. "Anyone whose mind wasn't _totally_ closed would see that. But you're so determined to believe that you're right that you won't listen to _any_ arguments the other way. Well, okay, Mr. I'm-always-right, you go on believing that – but you can't make me believe it. And I'm warning you right now: don't expect to be welcome in our apartment any more."

"You, you'd bar your own brother?" he said, looking astounded.

"I'm not barring you," Monica snapped, "just pointing out that Rachel won't want to be in the same room as you, that's for sure, and I'm certainly not gonna throw her out just because you've broken up with her. In fact, I'm thinking, if this is the way you're gonna treat her, _I_ don't want to be in the same room as you."

"Me neither," said Joey firmly, folding his arms. "The more you keep out of my way, the happier I'll be."

Ross turned to Chandler. "Are you gonna turn on me too?"

Chandler sighed deeply. So far he had not seen any point in joining in, particularly since Monica was making her points and carrying on the argument as well as anyone could. Viewed dispassionately, one or two of Ross's points had some slight merit, but overall there was nothing to give him serious doubt. Quite apart from anything else, it was simply impossible to believe that Rachel was capable of duping them all the way Ross was suggesting that she had been doing; she just wasn't that good at acting a part.

As they all looked at him, he realised that the last chance to salvage something from the wreckage of their friendship had fallen to him. He did not relish the task; dealing with matters this serious did not come easily to him, any more than the rest of them. It was too much like being fully grown up. But he had been thinking about the whole business quite a lot that day, and he did have some opinions ready, which had only been reinforced by the argument between Ross and Monica.

"C'mon, Chandler, you're my oldest friend," Ross said angrily.

Chandler looked at him with dislike. "You're turning this into some kind of loyalty test?" he said sharply. "Well, sucks to that."

Ross looked rather shocked. Seizing his moment, Chandler began.

"Ross," he said more gently, "doesn't it worry you at all that none of us can believe that Rachel is the kind of person to do what you're suggesting she's been doing?"

Ross blinked, but answered steadily enough, "You can't see her as she really is. I understand that, because until recently I had the same picture of her as you do."

Chandler felt despair. "Haven't _any_ of all the different arguments that we have produced shaken your belief in this picture of Rachel the supermanipulator? Okay, she can be lazy and self-centred and do morally questionable stuff, but don't we all? She can also be very sweet and supportive. I would say that my whole experience of her, since she came to live with Monica, has shown her as someone who screws up and gets in jams, and asks her friends for help in getting out of them, and helps them out in turn, just like the rest of us. Your picture of Rachel is simply unrecognisable."

Ross's face had darkened. "So, what, you're saying I'm a fool?"

"I've not said that!" Chandler cried. "But even if I had, would it be any different from you suggesting that we are fools, and only you have seen the truth? Why do you find it so hard to accept the possibility that you could be wrong?"

Ross did not reply, and his expression remained dark and brooding. When he made no attempt to speak, Chandler ploughed on.

"Here's what I think now. By sleeping with Chloe you have effectively killed your relationship with Rachel; it would take an immense amount of effort on your part to get her to forgive you for that. Now you say you want out anyway. Okay, but can't you at least try to end it a bit more gently? Can't you bring yourself to be a little apologetic, say you were overwrought when you accused her of cheating, you've had all this stuff boiling up inside you – jealousy over Mark, frustration at having to compete for her attention with her work, stuff like that? If you did that, I'm sure we'd all feel a lot easier, and we could think of meeting you, though not when Rachel was there, obviously. But you need to take this step of accepting and admitting that you could be wrong."

Ross's expression was hard to read. Chandler wondered if he was considering it.

"Yeah," said Monica quietly, "if you did that, I don't think I'd have any problem meeting up with you in Central Perk, at family gatherings, things like that, though you couldn't expect to come to the apartment, at least not at first. Maybe after a while – "

She was interrupted by Ross jumping to his feet, his expression one of complete fury. "What a concession!" he shouted. "My own sister doesn't think she'd have a problem seeing me sometimes! You have more loyalty to your _friend_" – he spat the word out – "than to me! That little bitch has got you so ... you're all so ... oh, the hell with it!"

He stormed out. In the silence that followed, Chandler looked over to Monica and saw that her face was very white and her lip was trembling, as if she was trying not to cry. He reached out and took her hand.

"I'm sorry," she wailed, tears beginning to flow. "I should have kept my big mouth shut."

"Not your fault, Mon," said Joey heavily. "He just wasn't gonna listen, no matter what we said."

"_Why_ wouldn't he listen?" Monica wailed. "Chandler, do you have any ideas?"

Chandler was having difficulty coming to terms with what must, in the circumstances, be Ross's abrupt departure from their lives; he didn't really want to talk. But both Monica and Joey were looking at him pleadingly. He sighed, and tried to think.

"One thing I noticed in college," he began. "Ross has never been very good at accepting that he's at fault. No matter what he did, he always tried to come up with some explanation that made him look okay, or at least not so bad. Now, do you think Rachel is really responsible for the break-up between them, which is how he sees it?"

After a silence, Joey said, rather reluctantly, "Well, she was the one who said, maybe they should take a break."

"Because she was so sick and tired of hearing him bring up Mark!" Monica flared. "It's like he's obsessed with him. But last night Rachel was mad about his going into her office and interrupting her work, it had absolutely nothing to do with Mark."

Chandler nodded. "Yes, Ross is obsessed with the idea that Mark is trying to attract Rachel away from him ... though we certainly helped that along in the early stages, didn't we, Joe?" He looked at Joey meaningfully. "We have some responsibility there. I did hope, when Mark moved to another job and wasn't sharing an office with Rachel any more, that might calm things down, but evidently not. So, anyway, Ross's natural conclusion is gonna be, when he hears Mark's voice, he's at it again. But that he's in the apartment means Rachel must have let him in, and in Ross's state of mind that's gonna seem very suspicious, especially when Rachel lies about it at first."

"But he wouldn't let her explain!" Monica cried. "He just put down the goddamn phone and went off and started fooling around with this Chloe."

"Right," said Chandler. "Rachel had made a decision, a rather dumb one in the circumstances, but understandable. But Ross did something that effectively meant he'd decided, whatever Rachel said he wasn't gonna believe her. It's not far from that to thinking, maybe he shouldn't have believed her other times. And then what does he do? He makes another decision."

"To start something with Chloe," said Joey excitedly. "Yeah, all the time he's making decisions and doing things."

"When Rachel made the decision to suggest they should have a break," said Monica, also sounding excited, "he didn't even try to talk about it – he just made his decision to walk out."

"Yeah, there's that too," said Chandler. "I'd forgotten that. Well, I guess when Ross went to bed with Chloe he had all sorts of things going round in his head, as well as being a bit drunk. But the next morning he had to face up to what he'd done, and why."

"He could say, they were on a break," Joey said.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't look too good, still, would it?" said Chandler. "It's not the best justification, and it's not the one he produces. That is that he thought Rachel was sleeping with Mark. And he certainly seems to have believed that, whether or not he thought she was cheating before, because otherwise why would he let Rachel see that Chloe was there? He wanted her to be hurt the way he had been."

"Yeeeah," Joey breathed. "So, it's like he _has_ to believe Rachel slept with Mark, to make what he's done seem more okay – "

"Yeah, and if he can say Rachel was cheating on him even before they broke up, that makes everything totally justifiable, including his suspicion of Mark," Monica cried. "Then he's the victim, like he was when Carol left him for Susan!"

"You think Carol cheated on him with Susan before they split up?" said Chandler, distracted.

"I think it highly likely that Susan seduced her," said Monica rather severely. "But that's not the point. I'm right, aren't I? Ross wants to see himself as the victim again."

"That's what I think," said Chandler, nodding. "He has lost something that was very precious to him, his dream relationship, and he can't bear to accept that it was his beliefs about Mark and his actions that kept moving things along, to the point of total disaster. So he clings to the idea that Rachel was cheating on him, and he creates more and more unbelievable scenarios to fit this idea, because it provides a retrospective" – he saw Joey's blank look and corrected himself – "a backward-looking justification for everything he's done."

"Wow, step up, Dr. Chandler!" said Joey admiringly, clapping his hands. "Dude, you really got us sorting this whole thing out."

"Yeah, I'm impressed, Chandler," Monica said, smiling at him. But her smile swiftly disappeared and her shoulders slumped. "But it doesn't change anything, does it? No matter the reason, Ross has walked out on us as well as on Rachel."

"Yeah, I'm afraid he has," said Chandler despondently. "He can't be with people who won't accept his self-justification."

"And now we have to tell Rachel," Monica said sadly as she stood up.

"I don't think she'll be surprised," said Chandler, also getting to his feet. "I can't believe she'd have taken him back after the Chloe business, even if he did withdraw his accusation of cheating."

"It's gonna be ... strange, without him," said Monica in a very subdued voice as they went across to the apartment block.

"There's still the five of us," said Joey, trying to be cheerful. "We can go on supporting each other and meeting together just like before. It'll be hardest for you, Mon. I mean – he is your brother."

Monica drew a slightly shaky breath. "I'll get by, with your help – but, oh god, I bet he's gonna tell all this to Mom, and as soon as she hears she'll decide it's all my fault."

"But there'll be lots of things Ross won't tell her, because they make him look bad," said Chandler encouragingly. "So, you just have to reveal it _all_ – that ought to slow her down. But anyway, I'd expect her to blame Rachel, not you."

"Then you don't know her too well," said Monica darkly.

They entered the apartment, and Rachel looked up at them from the couch, with a strained smile that clearly seemed to mask apprehension. "No luck, huh?" she said.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but no," said Monica heavily. "He's still totally set on believing that you've been cheating on him with Mark. But of course none of us believe it, and we told him so and gave him all sorts of reasons why not – but he wouldn't listen."

"Yeah, and so, we're not gonna see him any more," said Joey angrily.

"The way it worked out," Chandler explained, "because we wouldn't accept his ideas, he walked out on us."

Rachel nodded, and heaved a sigh. "Thanks, you guys, for believing me." She paused, then said, in a superficially light tone, "You know, I had decided, I couldn't take him back anyway, even if he withdrew all that and apologised. Thinking of him with that Chloe girl makes me sick to my stomach."

"That's what Chandler's been saying you'd feel," said Joey proudly. "He's been so smart about this whole thing, helping us work out why Ross has been like this, like he was a real shrink."

Rachel gave Chandler a shy little smile. "I'll have to talk to you." She sighed again, and said, "Well, that's that, then. There goes a year of my life. I guess" – she was trying and totally failing to give an impression of resigned acceptance – "I guess I'll have to mark it up to experience."

Monica sat down beside her on the couch and took her hand. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I really am. Just remember, we're here for you, whatever it takes to help you through this."

Rachel turned her head into Monica's shoulder and quite suddenly began to cry.

"Come on, Joe," said Chandler. "Let's go play foosball or something. 'Night, Mon, Rach."

"'Night," Monica answered, and Rachel faltered out a farewell between her tears.

-----

"So how did it go?" said Chloe as Ross marched into his apartment, where he had left her to go to Central Perk. She could see that it had not gone well, but she knew Ross would want to let off steam.

"A waste of time!" Ross spat out. "I shouldn't have bothered."

He hung up his coat and paced to and fro, evidently working up to something. Chloe watched him patiently; she had already learned that you needed a lot of patience with Ross.

"All the time I've wasted, hanging around with them!" he exploded suddenly. "A bunch of self-absorbed, co-dependent losers! Monica has a dead-end job, Chandler hates his job and makes a joke out of everything, Joey's a lousy actor who can't _get_ jobs most of the time, Phoebe's just plain _nuts_, and as for Rachel ..." He paused, breathing heavily.

Hoping to divert him before he went into another Rachel-rant, Chloe interrupted, "Phoebe's the tall blonde one, isn't she? She was so rude to me! But Ross, please don't upset yourself like this, it can't be good for you. Look, you're all red in the face. Why not," she went into seductive mode, "relax and let me comfort you?"

Ross grinned lasciviously. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

She jumped up, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the bedroom before he could change his mind.


	4. The Second Day After

Chapter 4: The Second Day After 

Author's Note: Last chapter really was rather long, I realise; I will try to keep them shorter. But anyway it's going to take more chapters to get through this than I thought, when I just had an idea roughed out.

Maybe I should say here: since I am not writing for a comedy show, I do not feel obliged to make my characters speak in nothing but short snatches of dialogue, let alone say witty things all the time. This material is too serious for jokes – just like much of TOW The Morning After, in fact. And here they're _all _involved, not, as in that episode, mostly helpless listeners. I think that might even affect Chandler's tendency to make jokes.

Cress has made the very reasonable point that Chandler and Joey encouraged Ross's paranoia about Mark in TOW All the Jealousy, and ought to admit it. I agree, and as well as putting in references below decided to change the text of Ch. 3 at a relevant point (the discussion of Ross's obsession with Mark).

-----

When Phoebe arrived in the apartment at breakfast time the next morning, to see Monica, Chandler and Joey seated at the table, it was evident that only Joey had slept well. Surprisingly, Chandler looked worst, very tired and heavy-eyed, but Monica also had that hungover look.

"Where's Rachel, still in bed?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah," said Monica. "I hope she's sleeping. It took a _long_ time to get her to bed. She kept going over it: how could Ross believe this of her, how could he cheat on her, what was she going to do now, all that. But eventually she wound down."

"And what's your problem?" said Phoebe to Chandler as she sat down. "No, wait, I can guess. It looks like your oldest friendship is dead."

"Not quite," said Chandler, "but it's very, very sick."

" So, what happened last night?" Phoebe asked.

Chandler sighed. "Ross walked out of our meeting, and not because we were yelling at him, either."

"Monica was putting up all these arguments, and he just wouldn't accept one of them," said Joey resentfully.

Phoebe looked at Monica, who nodded. "It looked like Ross was just about ready to admit that he might be wrong about Rachel cheating, but then he came out with a whole lot of other stuff, how the relationship was too hard, she was neglecting him because of her fixation with her work, and he still didn't trust her over Mark. So he thought, when they were just about broken up anyway, it was a good time to let it end."

Phoebe snorted in disdain.

"I, um, I did say, obviously he couldn't come here any more, because Rachel wouldn't want him here," Monica said, looking uneasy. "And that upset him."

Chandler leaned forward. "But it was when I said, clearly his relationship was dead anyway, because Rachel would never forgive him for sleeping with Chloe, but couldn't he make the break a little gentler and admit he could have been wrong about Mark, and explain his other reasons for breaking up – "

"And I said, then I could stand to meet him, like in Central Perk," Monica put in, now looking guilty.

"He just flipped," Joey finished.

"He thinks Rachel's got us all fooled," Chandler said. "She's this _great_ actress. It ... I can't even think of a joke about it, it's so _dumb_." He shook his head violently. "But those weren't the only things going through my head half the night. I remembered how, when we kept hearing from Rachel about this Mark guy early on, Joey and I encouraged Ross to see him as a snake in the grass, setting himself up as Rachel's confidant to edge Ross out."

"Well, at least you've admitted it," said Phoebe rather severely. "But you didn't create this suspicion of Ross's, did you? You just, like, stoked the flames."

"What suspicion?" said Rachel. They turned to see that she was standing at her bedroom door, wrapped in her robe and looking bleary-eyed. "His suspicion of me?" She looked at Chandler accusingly.

"No, of Mark," said Chandler hastily. "We – that, is, Joey and I – we never suggested you were up to anything, only that Mark was setting himself up as Mr. Sensitive, the guy you complained to about Ross, and hoping to move in some time when you were pissed at Ross."

Joey, who was now definitely looking rather guilty, said, "We did, um, sort of paint him a picture."

"Yeah, and we're, we're so sorry about that," said Chandler even more hastily, then "Man, I need a smoke!" He patted his pockets in an exaggerated way, but looked rather as if he meant it.

Rachel stood there for a moment, looking at Chandler and Joey and shaking her head, with pain in her eyes. Then she gave a great sigh. "He was like that about Mark right from the start," – her voice sharpened – "when you, Joey, encouraged him with that crap about men only being nice to strange women for sex."

"Well, I guess Joey thinks all men are like him," Chandler put in, hoping to lighten the mood a little.

"I was a strange woman when I moved in with Monica," Rachel snapped, glaring at Joey. "So, Joey, were you only being nice to me because you hoped to get me into bed?"

Joey looked embarrassed. "Well, no," he mumbled. "That was, um, different." Then he rallied. "Look, Ross sprang this question on me, and I didn't know what it related to, so that's what I said. I don't know, maybe I was wrong."

Rachel sighed and shrugged. "Okay, well, I accept that you're sorry for things you said. So am I. Now I'm gonna take a shower." She turned to Monica. "I'm going in to work today. I can't stand another day hanging around the apartment."

As she moved past them, she stepped over to pat Monica's shoulder. "Thanks for all the support, honey. I'm so sorry this has made a rift between you and Ross," she turned to Chandler, "and between you and Ross, too. I feel kinda guilty."

"But when it comes right down to it, it's all Ross's fault, because he's being obstinate as a pig!" Phoebe said viciously.

Rachel just nodded and went to the bathroom.

"But still," Monica said slowly, "I just don't feel easy, leaving it like this. We can't just _stop_. We, we ought to call him, like he called Rachel – "

"Only we listen to what he has to say, even if we hear Chloe in the background," Chandler said.

Phoebe snickered appreciatively.

-----

Ross woke feeling fine. His second night with Chloe had been little short of amazing. She really had given him comfort, and a lot besides. He felt a whole lot better. Suddenly energetic, he jumped out of bed and looked through the curtains. It was a fine day – a pity he had to go to work. But tomorrow was Saturday. Maybe they could all do something together ... But then he remembered, and his mood soured. His friends had deserted him, even his sister. They preferred Rachel to him.

"What are you thinking about?" said Chloe from the bed. "You looked kinda happy, but now you're sad and gloomy."

"I was thinking, maybe we, my friends and I, could do something this weekend," Ross said, "and then I realised, there's no 'we' any more." He shook his head. "I can't believe, they're just gonna shut me out like this."

He paced up and down thoughtfully. Suddenly he said, "I have a sort of idea. We could go to Central Perk this evening, after work, and then we'll see if they can keep up this, this refusal to have anything to do with me."

"But ... won't Rachel be there?" said Chloe nervously, "and, and maybe Mark too?"

That made Ross pause. "I guess that would make things awkward, yeah. I, I certainly couldn't stand to see Mark right now, and Rachel ..." He stood in thought, then nodded. He had a plan. "Maybe I should check through the window. If either of them is there, okay, we pass it up. But if not, we go in. I want my friends to get to know what a sweet girl you are. None of this is your fault." He gazed at her sentimentally. "And you know, now that I've got you, I don't feel so bad about everything else. I think I can even forgive Rachel for falling in love with Mark. I'll tell them that, to pass on."

"That's what you've decided she did, is it?" said Chloe, without a trace of irony.

Ross nodded. "It makes the best sense, really. The guys did have a point last night; she's not so great at acting." But then his eyes took on a detached look, as he appeared to start mulling it over yet again. "Um, I wonder, though," he said. "She would still have to be hiding her feelings about Mark from me, and the others ..."

He continued to think, while Chloe held his hand and squeezed gently, looking at him as if she had complete confidence that he would come up with the right answer. This cheered him, and he found himself remembering something else of relevance.

"She did hide her feelings about me well enough, when I was dating Julie," he said to Chloe in a more confident tone, "and I never guessed. That shows she can hide things. So, anyway, do you think that's a plan for this evening? If, if things don't go well, you and I can still go to a movie and have dinner or something."

She smiled sunnily at him. "Yeah, I'm fine with that, Ross."

Her smile made him feel warm all over. This was the way it ought to be; this was the way it had been with Rachel, before she got that Bloomingdale's job. He caught himself just as he was about to sigh. It might upset Chloe to know that he kept thinking about his past with Rachel, and he certainly did not want to do that. But he was finding it impossible to keep Rachel out of his mind. A whole year together, and more than a year before that of being around her all the time and pining for her, and all the years of his high school crush earlier still: it was a big part of his life, and now ... just like that, almost, it was over. He fought down the anger that threatened to engulf him again, that all those years should have come to this because ... well, because she could fall in and out of love so easily, it seemed like. All that business with Barry should have warned him.

He moved to look at the alarm clock on the night stand, and grinned. No need to get going right away ... He advanced on Chloe decisively.

"Why, Dr. Geller!" she cried delightedly, holding her arms out to him. "And so early in the morning!"

-----

It was later in the morning, when Ross was at his desk, that his phone rang.

"Your sister to speak to you," said the staff secretary.

After a moment's pause, he said, "Put her on."

"Ross," he heard Monica say in a slightly tremulous voice, "look, I'm sorry to have said things that, that upset you, but, well, I was upset myself. Now, we've been talking, and nobody wants to leave it like this, just, just letting our group fall apart. So we agreed – "

"Who agreed?" he said sharply.

"Me, Chandler, and Joey, really," she said. "Rachel, well, she finally said, okay, she'd be there at a meeting, but if you say just one thing that she thinks is out of line, she'll walk out. And when Rachel agreed, Phoebe didn't feel like she could stay out, and I have made her promise not to yell at you, but don't expect much from her."

After a pause, in which Ross did not speak because he was thinking, she went on, "If you take Chandler's advice and stick to saying stuff like he suggested, then maybe we can sort of patch things up a bit and start trying to get past this."

After another pause, she said, slightly impatiently, "So, what do you say?"

Ross was not at all sure that this was going to work. But he recognised that Monica was offering quite a substantial olive branch, by apologising for the things she'd said. And he could see that this offered him an opportunity to end it with Rachel in a way that could make him look magnanimous, and though relations were bound to be strained with the others for quite a while, after what had been said on all sides, it did offer some kind of a way forward.

"Okay, I'll do it," he said. "Central Perk this evening, after work?"

"You got it," said Monica, her voice lifting slightly. "Thanks for being willing to make the effort, Ross." She broke the connection.

Ross sat and thought for a moment, then picked up the phone again and tapped out the number of the copy shop.

When Chloe answered, he said, "It's Ross. Slight change of plan ..."

-----

Rachel arrived at her office late, but not as late as all that. To her relief, Joanna was elsewhere at the time; she was not looking forward to their meeting. Sophie gazed at her sympathetically.

"I don't suppose you've made up?" she said questioningly.

Rachel pulled a face and shook her head violently. "Last I heard, he still thinks I was cheating with Mark, and, even if he's finally retracted that, I wouldn't forgive him." Her voice shook for a moment, and she fought to get it under control. "He, he went off and slept with another woman ... to get even with me, I guess."

"Oh Rachel, that's terrible!" said Sophie, eyes wide.

"What's terrible?" said Joanna as she reappeared in their office. "Morning, Rachel." Her voice was cool.

"Morning, Joanna," said Rachel nervously, as Sophie said, "Rachel's boyfriend Ross thought she was cheating on him with Mark, so he went and slept with someone else."

"H'm," went Joanna noncommittally. Then she said in a rather stern voice, "Rachel, you missed work yesterday, and you were late today. Now, after what I've heard, I guess I can feel some sympathy, but you are going to have to decide what means more to you, your career or your lovelife."

It was too much. Rachel jumped to her feet and exploded. "I've been working late _constantly_ this month, including on our anniversary two nights ago, which was what started the big fight that led to our break-up. And now it looks like what I was doing, all that time, was throwing awaya good relationship for the sake of my career! You don't think _that_ shows commitment?" She was virtually yelling by the end and there were tears on her face, but they were tears of anger. She even took an almost threatening step towards Joanna. Sophie watched in amazement.

Joanna made calming down motions with her hands, looking taken aback. "I, well, put like that, no, I can't doubt your commitment, Rachel," she said, then, in a lower voice, "But if this boyfriend of yours is so jealous, maybe you're well rid of him."

Rachel slumped down in her chair again, shaking her head and looking mournful. "I think he just couldn't handle my having a part of my life that he wasn't involved in, but Mark was."

"Ah yes, Mark," said Joanna. "I, um, I'm not sure he's such a good idea either, Rachel." Her tone led Sophie to look at her suspiciously: had she once been involved with Mark some way?

Rachel groaned and threw up her hands in a gesture of despair. "Why does everyone think I must have fallen for Mark, or am gonna fall for Mark, like it's bound to happen? He's a friend I can talk to about fashion, that's all, something I could never do with Ross." She gave a little half-sob, then grabbed a tissue, blew her nose, and looked at Sophie. "You told Phoebe, you thought he had a crush on me?"

Sophie nodded. "I think I've seen some fairly convincing signs."

"I thought he had a girlfriend," Rachel said doubtfully.

"I've heard, that's over," Sophie said. "He, um, rather goes from girl to girl."

"Well, he's not stopping off at _me_!" Rachel said emphatically. "This is half his fault anyway. If he'd only realised it was Ross on the phone, as anyone could have guessed, and kept his mouth shut, none of this need ever have happened! He's the last guy I'm gonna date!"

So much for Mark, thought Sophie to herself.

Joanna cleared her throat in a taking-charge sort of way. "I've heard enough about Ross and Mark," she said curtly. "Now we must get on with some work – and I shall expect you, Rachel, to put in some extra effort to make up for the time you've missed."

"Fine," said Rachel. "I need something to concentrate my mind on. But we're having a big meeting, all of us, this evening, to see if we can avoid breaking up our group completely. So I'd really be very grateful if you wouldn't expect me to work late tonight, though I'll be happy to do so other times."

There was silence for a moment, in which Sophie watched admiringly as Rachel held Joanna's gaze calmly. Having finally faced her on more or less equal terms, she seemed to have a new confidence.

"Very well," said Joanna briskly. "Just this once."

"Thank you," said Rachel equally briskly. "So, where would you like me to start today?"

-----

Ross did a lot of thinking that day, to the detriment of his work. Despite what he had said to Chloe, he still found it hard to decide between various alternatives. Had Rachel been cheating on him with Mark before their break-up, or had she only done so on the night of the break-up? In either case, had she developed strong feelings for Mark, or was she just using him? Hard though it was to accept, he found he would rather believe that she had developed feelings for Mark, which the break-up had brought out into the open; that fitted better with the Rachel that he thought he knew.

It did rather look as if the scenario that Chandler and Joey had presented to him, when he was first worried about Mark's apparent importance to Rachel, had played itself out more or less as they had scripted it. He could not help feeling a strong degree of irritation, to put it no higher, at their present refusal to believe in the validity of their own scenario, when the evidence was there before their eyes. But had his behaviour really driven Rachel into Mark's arms? Surely not; he did not think he had been that bad. Some jealousy was natural, as he thought Rachel had realised when she got jealous over his arranging a play-date for Ben with a stripper's son.

No, he had to face it. As various episodes in the recent past should have shown him, Rachel was really a bit unstable, and she was also, clearly, so obsessed with her work in fashion that he would always have come second in her mind. But he thought he could forgive her for that, and for transferring her affections to someone else, now that he had a less difficult and demanding girlfriend in Chloe. He smiled as he thought of her. She had been so understanding about his request to put off their date until later in the evening, and had seemed relieved, understandably perhaps, that after all he did not expect her to go to Central Perk with him.

When he left his work and set out for Central Perk, he was feeling confident about what he intended to say, but as he drew closer his mind worried away at what the others might say and what his reactions should be. If Monica had done her work, at least Phoebe would not start in on him, but what about Rachel? He decided that he would have to pre-empt her, in fact all of them, and show that he was not coming with a load of grudge and resentment to work off.

When he entered Central Perk and turned at once to the couch area that they always favoured, he could see that the three girls were on the couch, with Rachel in the middle, while Chandler and Joey sat in chairs to either side of the table. They had placed a chair for him, but he was not entirely happy with an arrangement which would suit a job interview. However, he shrugged that off and advanced.

When they turned to him, he held his arms out and said, "Rachel, I forgive you." It came out a bit more dramatically than he intended.

He didn't quite expect the absolute silence that followed. He had been hoping for a murmur of surprise, even approval, from someone. But it was Rachel who spoke.

"You forgive me," she said in a toneless voice. "For what, precisely?"

He noticed that she seemed very pale. It's hit her hard, he thought, and that made him feel sympathetic.

"Why, for falling for Mark," he said. "I guess it's understandable – "

But he got no further, for Rachel jumped up and rushed to the door, followed hastily by Monica and Phoebe, who paused at the door to send a scorching look of reproach his way before hurrying after them. Ross gaped, totally taken aback. He looked at Chandler and Joey, who stared at him, seeming as surprised as he was.

"I, I was trying to be nice about it," he stammered. "To show her I'm not mad any more ..."

Chandler sighed. "I thought you had decided, your idea that she had fallen for Mark was a fairy tale," he said rather acidly. "Can you not make up your mind and stick to it?"

"It's so hard to decide," Ross complained, as he sat down on the couch. "There are so many possibilities ... all I feel certain of is that she had sex with Mark ..."

It was at that point that Gunther appeared in front of him and displayed a sign which said, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone".

"I think it would be best if you left, quietly," he said in a toneless voice.

Ross looked into his eyes and was shocked to see something that looked very like hatred there. He turned to Chandler, who shook his head with a sad expression, then to Joey, who said gruffly, "Better do what the man says."

He felt rage welling up at their refusal to support him, but he knew that nothing was to be gained by causing a scene. Without another word he got to his feet and left.


	5. Aftermath 1

Chapter 5: Aftermath 1

Author's Note: I apologise for being slow to update, and this is a notably short chapter, but I have been suddenly overwhelmed with real work and now have to go away for nearly a week, so if I don't put this up now there probably won't be anything before Christmas. More as soon as I can manage it.

-----

"What did you do that for?" cried Joey angrily to Gunther, before running after Ross.

Chandler got to his feet more slowly, looking questioningly at Gunther.

"I had my reasons," said Gunther in a rather expressionless voice.

"We're some of your best customers," Chandler said sharply. "You gonna exclude all of us?"

"Oh no," said Gunther, looking shocked, "the rest of you are welcome any time – especially Rachel." Then, as if afraid he had said too much, he turned away abruptly, and Chandler was left to take in what had suddenly become clear. Gunther had a crush on Rachel; probably, Chandler realised, he had always had one. He certainly let her get away with a lot when she was working as a waitress.

Joey came back into Central Perk. "He wouldn't come back," he said dolefully. "He's mad at us, Chandler."

Chandler sighed. "I guess I can't blame him, but ... you know what, Joe? Suddenly, I have had _enough_!"

He said this really emphatically. As Joey looked at him in alarm, he went on, "Enough of trying to get Ross to see reason and stop producing these crazy ideas, enough of having Rachel crying all over the place – I'm sick and tired of the whole damn thing!" After a moment's pause, he said in a more normal voice, "We'd better go to the apartment."

He settled the bill for all who had been in Central Perk, and they went back to the apartment in silence. When they opened the door, it was to hear Phoebe saying, "He's just got this idea so fixed in his head it will, y'know, take dynamite to blow it loose. I say, we give up trying."

All three women turned to look enquiringly at Chandler and Joey as they came in.

"Gunther kicked him out," Chandler explained, "and he went off in a huff."

"You didn't stop him?" said Monica neutrally.

"He wouldn't stop," said Joey. "He was mad, because we didn't try to support him against Gunther."

Monica looked at Chandler questioningly, as if wanting more information.

"Gunther was so mad at Ross, he showed him a refusal of service thing," he said. "I guess he _really_ didn't like Ross making Rachel unhappy."

Rachel sighed. "Oh God," she said in a dragging voice. "Gunther's crush again."

"You knew about it?" said Chandler, surprised.

"Yeah," said Rachel slowly. "I knew. I just ... tried to ignore it, and hope it would go away. But, well, obviously it didn't."

"He didn't show this thing to you?" Monica said to Chandler.

"No, he said the rest of us were welcome – which implies he means to ban Ross, and not just for tonight."

"Then how will we ever see him?" said Monica disspiritedly. "I don't think he'll come here."

"So it'll be like, he's not just breaking up with me, but all of you," said Rachel in a tearful voice. "I'm mad at him, but I didn't want that. Oh, I'm sorry, guys." She broke into sobs.

Monica gulped and hugged her, looking close to tears herself, but Phoebe looked stony-faced.

"I say, let him cut himself off from the rest of us if he wants to," she said sternly. "We leave it to him to decide. We've set up two meetings, and he's walked out of one and spoiled the other before it got started. If he wants to, like, still be part of the group, he can come to us." She walked over to Rachel and put a hand on her shoulder. "There's a positive side to this, Rachel. At least you're free of all that dinosaur talk."

Rachel gave a tiny snickering sound.

"Yeah," said Joey, trying to sound encouraging, "and all that jealousy stuff. Hey, you know what you ought to do, Rach? Get out there and find yourself some new dates."

Monica rolled her eyes, looked at Chandler, and shook her head. Chandler nodded; sometimes Joey's apparent belief that a new date or a visit to a strip club were all you needed to get over a traumatic break-up did grate a bit.

"Like, get back on the horse that threw you?" said Phoebe dubiously. "Well, maybe there's something in that, but ... I'm not sure that's what Rachel needs, just now."

Rachel gently removed Monica's arms from around her, grabbed some tissues to wipe her eyes and blow her nose, then took a deep breath and seemed to settle herself. She looked around them all seriously.

"I truly loved Ross," she said, in a voice that it was only slightly shaky. "It's gonna take a while to get over that. Remember when Monica broke up with Richard – though there the circumstances were quite different."

She looked apologetically at Monica for mentioning this; Monica made a don't-worry-about-it gesture.

"So please don't push me into dating, guys," Rachel continued. "Just let me be. At least I have a job that I can be interested in, not like when Ross was dating Julie." She looked about her. "Where's the TV Guide? I wanna watch something really dumb and forget about everything for a while."

Thinking this was not a bad idea, Chandler forbore to mention that it was his TV Guide they were talking about, but suggested that channel-surfing might find them something faster. Soon they were all watching an old Days Of Our Lives episode, from before the time when Joey was one of the leads, and drinking beer or soft drinks and indulging themselves with various munchies. Monica bit her tongue and kept quiet over minor spillages, recognising that this was therapy that Rachel needed. Certainly, she seemed to be enjoying herself, laughing at Chandler's jokes and exchanging comments with him and others that derided the implausibilities of the plot and the actions of the characters.

Later Monica cooked them all dinner, and after some further TV Rachel went to bed early. When Monica checked, she was sound asleep, to Monica's considerable relief.

-----

For the third morning in a row, Ross awoke with Chloe beside him. He rolled onto his back and thought about things, trying to stay calm and reflective. It was clear, after the abortive meeting in Central Perk, that his friends, even his sister, were never going to see his point of view, never going to offer him real support. They might set up meetings, but their intention was obviously to get him to compromise, if not capitulate – and he was not about to do that.

He had to accept it: one and all, they had become Rachel's partisans, and so he could not go on associating with them. He remembered his raging dismissal of them when he returned to Chloe from the first meeting. It hadn't been the whole truth, but there was enough truth in it to make him think, it was about time he got some new friends. After all, his links with Phoebe and Joey were nothing like as deep or long-established as those with Monica and Chandler, and Rachel had come back into his life after a long period when he barely saw her. In time, he hoped, he could re-establish a relationship with Monica, and with Chandler too. But for now, he should leave them alone, and see how they liked it without him.

He sighed and shook his head at the sadness of it all. It was good that Rachel had felt she did not want to go on working as a waitress, but if she, if anyone, had known what would come of it ...!

Chloe stirred beside him, and turned over towards him. "Not still worrying about about it, Ross honey?" she said sympathetically. "Look, don't you think you should just drop it? Anyone would agree, they're not acting like friends, or a sister." She put a hand on his chest. "I worry about your health, Ross. It can't be good for you, getting so upset all the time." There was real concern in her eyes.

Ross smiled. "Actually, I had just come to the conclusion that there wasn't much point in going on meeting with them anyway, when they're all so pro-Rachel." He put out his arms and drew her close. "Maybe you have some nice friends I could get to know."

She smiled. "Well, maybe. You should come to the club again, if, if it doesn't have bad memories for you, that is."

"It has one good memory that outweighs the bad," he said seriously. "I met you properly. I really value that."

"Thank you, Ross," she said in a slightly shaky voice. "I, I'm glad."

Ross cast an eye at the clock on the nightstand. "We should be getting up," he said. "You want the shower first?"

"Okay," she said, smiling at him. "Then I can get breakfast ready while you're in there."

Later, over breakfast, she said, "You know, in all the fuss, you never told me what you thought about my getting a puppy."

Ross pursed his lips. "I hope this won't disappoint you, Chloe, but I don't think it's a good idea. You'd have to leave it alone for a lot of the day, and it won't be happy. Plus, you need to spend time training a puppy. Are you willing to put in that time?"

She pouted a little. "Well, I have to admit, I didn't think of all that. I just think puppies are cute. But you're right." She looked at him admiringly. "You're so smart, Ross. I could tell you were, the first time you came into the shop."

"So you noticed me, huh?" he said happily.

"Oh yeah!" she said. "One thing I liked right away, you were sort of shy and polite. You should see some of the jerks we get in there. I used to look forward to your visits, you know."

This was all very good for Ross's ego, as he was the first to acknowledge.

"What about Joey?" he could not resist asking. "Did you like him? He certainly thought you were hot."

Chloe pulled a face. "He's so obvious. Yeah, I guess he is handsome, and he has a nice smile, but other than that he's not much of an improvement on the guys who feel they have to hit on me, like it's a rule." She rolled her eyes. "There's lines I must have heard like a hundred times. You never tried stuff like that."

She smiled at him lovingly, and Ross felt his heart swell. It was very nice being appreciated for not being Joey.

He looked at his wrist, only to realise that his watch was not there, and remembered that he missed it yesterday and intended to search the apartment thoroughly, but had forgotten in all the turmoil.

Chloe suddenly looked embarrassed. "Uh, looking for your watch?" she said. "I, er, I sort of took it."

"Why would you do that?" said Ross, puzzled.

"I, um, wanted something of yours, when I didn't know that we would go on being together," she said nervously. "And then, with all the things that have been happening, I kept forgetting about it, but I really did mean to give it back. Wait a sec."

She went to find her purse and opened it, took out his watch, and handed it back to him, looking shamefaced.

Ross could not be mad at her. "It's okay, Chloe," he said indulgently. "I'm kind of touched, that you cared that much. Let's forget it."

She smiled, looking relieved. "So, what is the time anyway?"

He checked. "It's close to eight thirty. I should be going in a moment. Shall I come round to get you for lunch?"

Her smile turned into a beam. "Please do, Ross."

-----

Monica was up early, as was her custom, and was waiting rather anxiously to see how Rachel would be this morning. She knew from her own experience that when you were trying to get over a break-up you could be relatively cheerful one moment and plunged into depression again the next. She fidgeted, unable to relax; any moment now, she would feel an uncontrollable urge to clean something, maybe the bathroom, even though Rachel had not yet used it. Luckily, distraction arrived in the form of Phoebe.

"Thought I'd better get here early," she said in a low voice. "So, no sign of Rachel yet? Is she still asleep?"

"I've no idea," said Monica. "I'm kind of hoping yes, because it's good that she should sleep. But I know she wants to go in to work today."

At that point Rachel's door opened, and a tousled but relatively normal-looking Rachel appeared.

"Morning, guys," she said in a quiet voice.

"M-morning, sweetie," said Monica rather nervously.

"How are you feeling?" said Phoebe in a sympathetic way.

Rachel pulled a face. "I woke early; just lay there thinking. I could be better, I could be worse, I guess." She gave a little sigh and added, rather tonelessly, "I'll get by," as she shuffled off to the bathroom.

Monica and Phoebe looked at each other.

"She's always slow to get going in the mornings," said Monica. "But this ..."

"I hear you," said Phoebe. "But I don't think there's anything we can do, except be, y'know, supportive."

Monica nodded, and sighed much more loudly than Rachel had. "I think Ross is the only man she's ever really loved."

"Mm-hmm," went Phoebe. "Well, I hope he's happy with his copy shop bimbo." Her tone was vicious. "I bet she'll get bored with him fast enough," she prophesied.


	6. Aftermath 2

Chapter 6: Aftermath 2

Author's Note: My apologies for being so slow to update, again. One problem has been deciding what, of the very varied developments in the episodes of Season 3 after 16 (TOW The Morning After), could still happen and how, because anything that involves Ross clearly could not happen the way it is shown in the show, if at all. Since I do not intend to present a detailed AU version of the period covered by these episodes, it seems best simply to emphasise that readers should not assume either that events in which Ross was not involved did nevertheless take place, or that, if they did, they happened in the same chronological order and relationship to each other as in the show. Reading what follows should make clear why I feel it necessary to say this, and it will apply to later chapter(s) as well.

My thanks once again to Cress for preventing me going wrong at various points.

-----

Phoebe's prophecy that Chloe would get bored with Ross was, quite simply, wrong. He was a very different kind of man from any she had known before, and she was really impressed by the breadth of his knowledge and his willingness to answer questions about all sorts of things that she wanted to know more about. He was also, in her view, a better lover than other men she had dated, and she felt really happy that he was evidently taking their relationship seriously and not as just a rebound fling.

For his part, Ross found Chloe a very pleasant and relaxing girlfriend. She had a cheerful, open nature and was very easy to please. Having no reason to fear competition from Isaac, the man she saw most frequently, he was not inclined to be jealous, over-possessive or untrusting; in that respect he had learned from his experience with Rachel. He liked it that Chloe did not make the kind of teasing and often disrespectful digs at him that his old friends, including Rachel, had done. Indeed, it was a considerable plus from his point of view that Chloe only knew what he chose to tell her about his past, for he had sometimes suspected that Rachel's memories of him from high school days coloured her attitude to him as a man. But Chloe's previous experience of him was simply as a welcome and highly rated customer, and she controlled her natural curiosity about his life before she became his girlfriend, recognising that talking about this might bring memories that made him unhappy.

Another major point in her favour was that she was perfectly at ease with Ben. The eldest daughter of quite a large family, she had experience of dealing with boy toddlers, and was good at handling and playing with him. For this reason, Carol and Susan also approved of her. Carol had been shocked, and Susan had expressed open sympathy, when they heard from Ross that Rachel had left him for another man, and that his friends and even Monica supported her rather than him. He did not give out any details about the circumstances in which Chloe had become his girlfriend, and they didn't ask, but they accepted her readily enough.

But Carol was uneasy to hear of the rift between Ross and Monica, and when she thought about it she could not help suspecting that there was more to it than Ross had told them. But she decided that it might be better not to call Monica or visit her for a while, until things settled down a bit. His mother too was shocked to hear, when Ross gave her his account of the break-up, that Monica supported Rachel rather than her own brother, and only refrained from calling Monica to bawl her out at his earnest entreaty. To do him justice, a major reason Ross had for asking this was that he did not want his problems to cause real trouble between his mother and sister; but he also did not want his mother exposed to a different viewpoint that might confuse her and even make her doubt the truth.

Ross found that his new life was not free of problems. One, a major one, was that he found difficulty forming a new circle of friends. Isaac, with whom Chloe was quite friendly, gave off a strong impression of being an even stupider Joey, and he did not want to get to know him any better, while other acquaintances of hers were without interest for him also; they seemed too young and inexperienced, and tended to treat him as if he was a generation and not a few years older. But when he tried to forge closer links with some of his co-workers at the Museum, with whom he felt he had more in common anyway, he did not have much luck. To his dismay, he discovered from one of his more sympathetic colleagues that his dumping of Julie for Rachel, though well over a year old now, had left a lasting bad impression of him among the paleontological specialists, for she was liked by those of them who had encountered her at conferences or in the field, and they passed on their view to the rest. This in turn led to a disinclination to take his account of his break-up with Rachel at face value, particularly since she had charmed several of his male co-workers on visits to the Museum.

Another problem was his loss of contact with Monica. In adulthood they had grown close, and had become used to exchanging all sorts of news and confidences quite frequently. Now he had no one to congratulate him on successes and commiserate with him on difficulties and reverses except Chloe, who was supportive but understood very little about his day-to-day work. Indeed, he would have liked to talk with someone about Chloe and how good she was for him, but he could not do that with Monica now.

And he had to admit, he missed his old group. After so long, he found it hard to accept that not only Rachel, but Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe were no longer part of his life. More than once he found his feet taking him automatically towards Central Perk, and remembering that he could not go there any more made him feel strange and disoriented. Often he thought of things he wanted to tell them, and the realisation that he couldn't aroused feelings of depression and anger. He tried not to let this show too much, because he didn't want to give Chloe the idea that he was pining for Rachel, which he wasn't. In fact, one of the many good things about Chloe was that getting a relationship properly established with her kept him from thinking too much about Rachel. He could not help doing so sometimes, but when he did he would find himself imagining her with Mark and would get mad, because he could imagine Mark encouraging Rachel to think badly of him and to be pleased that they had broken up. So he tried, whenever he thought of her, to remind himself of some bad characteristic of hers, like her obsession with shopping, and feel relieved that he no longer had to deal with it.

No doubt he would have felt aggrieved to know that Rachel was doing exactly the same thing with regard to her memories of him, but was finding getting over him much harder because she had no new love interest to distract her. Instead, she tried to focus on her job as never before, and frequently worked late to avoid the long empty evenings. When she was in the apartment and Monica was there also she was still ready to sit and talk, and commiserate with her on her various problems at work and her non-relationship with Pete, a customer at the Moondance Diner who had turned out to be a multimillionaire computer king and who was determinedly pursuing Monica, but to whom Monica could not feel proper attraction. In turn, Monica was always ready to give a sympathetic ear to anything Rachel had to say and would have been willing to have a real heart-to-heart talk with her about Ross. But she and all Rachel's friends quickly learned that Ross was a topic that Rachel did not want to discuss or hear discussed in any way. At the least reference to him, her face would turn so sorrowful that it made them uneasy and embarrassed, and they learned to avoid even abusive references in her presence.

For a while they all felt his absence keenly. At first one or other would even absent-mindedly start to address a remark to him, only to stop at the sight of an empty chair and, if she was present, Rachel's miserable expression. But slowly they began to become more accustomed to the new situation. One useful distraction was provided by the occasional appearances of Pete, who fascinated them all as someone their own age who had become spectacularly successful. Even Rachel would arouse herself from the state of rather melancholy-seeming thoughtfulness that she now generally fell into when in Central Perk, to join in conversation with him. Occasionally she would even ask his advice about matters relating to her work, and his responses seemed to have a beneficial effect, helping her to take a more focused approach instead of just blindly pressing on with it. After a while she reported, with considerable satisfaction, an actual compliment from her boss Joanna.

This was taken as a welcome sign of an improvement in her state of mind, but not so much later Monica heard Rachel crying quite hard in her bedroom one night. She had been thinking that it was not a good sign that Rachel never seemed to cry, that it would have done her good to let it out. Now she felt she had an opportunity to comfort her properly and walked in.

Rachel was lying in bed when she entered; she looked up and made an uncertain noise. Monica simply walked over to her and pulled her up into a hug.

"There, there," she said, patting her on the back. "Let it all out." She said no more as Rachel wept on her shoulder, just making wordless comforting noises. In a while Rachel calmed down and lay back down to sleep, murmuring thanks, to Monica's satisfaction.

But the following morning, when Rachel came out of her bedroom, looking clear-eyed and rested, she said, "Thanks for last night, Mon. I guess it was what I needed, but I hope you won't have to do it again. I'm trying to work through this myself and not rely on others, even you. I'm getting better, but ... suddenly I just had this feeling that my life is so sad and empty now, and I got to wondering whether I'd ever be in love again, and whether I even wanted to be, when I always seem to wind up getting clobbered."

"I understand, sweetie," said Monica with great sympathy. "But you really shouldn't give up hope. You're still young, and there's a guy out there for you, I'm sure of it." She looked at Rachel a little uncertainly. "I guess you don't feel ready to get out there and find a date yet."

Rachel shook her head and seemed to shudder a little. "It's much too early," she said. "I need to get over Ross a lot more."

After that, Rachel showed more obvious improvement as the days went by. She began to take part in the conversations in Central Perk again, but they all noticed a new seriousness in her comments and her approach to life generally. Although she still bought her magazines and followed fashion, now it was much more with a view to how it could help with her job. Somewhat to her friends' dismay, she began to develop a habit of giving more detailed reports on her progress at work and what Joanna and her workmates said about it than they cared to hear. But they tolerated it for her sake. A development more welcome to Monica was that she began to do things in the apartment more frequently; but she still privately mourned the loss of her frivolous, light-hearted friend.

Then Monica's sudden discovery that she was attracted to Pete, after all, drew attention away from Rachel. This followed a confused situation in which he asked her to be head chef of a restaurant that he had bought, firmly denying that he was doing it because he had a crush on her. But she worked out while he was showing her round the restaurant that he did have a crush on her and said they probably should not see each other any more, only to find, in exchanging goodbye kisses, that she could feel the passion she had been wanting to feel.

So Monica began to date Pete properly, and everyone was delighted for her; even Rachel expressed enthusiasm in a rather muted way. She and the others hoped that Monica would take the job as head chef that Pete had been offering, since this had been her ambition for so long; but although she gave up her job at the Moondance Diner she dithered, still not sure whether she ought to be working for someone she was dating. The problem gave scope for animated discussions in Central Perk, but the lift that having a boyfriend gave to Monica's spirits made itself felt throughout the group, although Rachel remained quiet and much more serious than she used to be.

There were plenty of other things for them to talk about as well. Joey developed a very evident crush on Kate, the female lead in his play, which Monica for one hoped would lead to his falling properly in love, though Rachel expressed scepticism in private talks about it. Joey also bought Chandler a chick as an Easter present, which was closely followed by Chandler's acquisition of a duck, a development observed with mixed feelings by both Monica and Rachel, though the guys definitely loved looking after their new pets. Chandler met Joanna, Rachel's boss, and when she showed an interest in him Rachel set up a date between them. This went well from Joanna's point of view but not Chandler's. The fall-out could have seriously compromised Rachel's position at work, but she managed to get the situation resolved adequately. Joanna, she told Monica rather proudly, went so far as to admit that it was hardly her fault that Chandler has such issues with intimacy, and it was certainly not something to lose the services of a good assistant over.

And all the time Ross was slowly fading from their lives, changing from being a constant though invisible presence to a memory, and though each of them still thought about him quite frequently, they never spoke of him to each other, whether Rachel was present or not. And then something happened that forced him on their notice once again.

It started with a phone call that Monica received one Sunday morning when Pete was away on business. She and Rachel had finished a rather late breakfast and were discussing what they might do that day, for Monica was eager to make use of her free time to do something active and not just hang out idly, though the weather was not promising.

Surprised to be called at that time, but expecting that it would be either her mother or possibly Pete, Monica was utterly taken aback to hear Ross's voice. He sounded rather excited.

"Hey Mon! Look, no hard feelings, huh? I mean, I've gotten over it, and I have this piece of news that I just have to tell you and the gang."

Seeming to recognise his voice, Rachel sat bolt upright on the couch and fixed a rather intent gaze on Monica.

"Oh, you've gotten over it?" said Monica rather sarcastically, nodding to Rachel and mouthing 'Ross'. "That's good. So, what is this news?"

"Yeah," said Ross, oblivious to the irony in her voice, "I mean, time has passed and all that. And my news" – his excitement increased – "is that I'm gonna be on TV!"

"Wow!" said Monica, impressed despite herself. "Doing what?"

"I'm gonna be on this panel to talk about fossils they've found in Peru, and it will go out on the Discovery channel," said Ross proudly. "How about that, huh?"

"That, that's really something," said Monica slowly. "You'll have to tell us when it's showing."

"Oh, sure," said Ross. "It won't appear for months, I guess. But this will surely do me good in the profession." His voice changed, and became more hesitant. "So, so, how is everybody? What's going on?"

By now Rachel had taken her eyes off Monica again and was looking at a magazine, though it didn't seem that she was really interested in it, as she kept flicking over pages. Hoping that she wasn't mad at her for talking civilly to Ross, Monica told him the main items of news – the development of her relationship with Pete, Joey's brush with love that had come to nothing in the end, the bad critical reception of his play, his and Chandler's new pets the chick and the duck, Chandler's disastrous date with Joanna and what followed, Phoebe's various Phoebisms.

Ross made interested noises, occasionally even laughed, but said when she stopped, "And, and Rachel? You didn't mention Rachel. It's okay, you can tell me, it's not gonna burn me up. I told you, time has passed."

"Oh, well," Monica said, struggling to think of what she could say. "She's, she's all of a sudden doing well in her job. This boss of hers, Joanna, seems pleased with her, and she sounds really hard to please."

Rachel sat up and looked at Monica again.

"Yeah, yeah," said Ross impatiently. "But what about her personal life? How are things going with Mark? Is he treating her okay?"

Monica sighed exaggeratedly. "Ross, she never was with Mark."

"Huh?" Ross sounded very surprised. "You mean, she found out she wasn't in love with him after all? I guess maybe she couldn't forget all the pain that caused for everyone, including herself – and you guys wouldn't have been too pleased to see him around – "

Sudden rage lit in Monica, and she had banged down the phone before she knew it. Rachel looked at her wide-eyed.

"The, the damn fool," Monica spat out. "He, he thinks ... he still thinks ... oh god, Rach, he still thinks you were in love with Mark." She looked despairingly at Rachel, feeling tears well in her eyes.

To her surprise, Rachel took it quite calmly. "Why should he change?" she said. "That was the view he settled on, and it's certainly kinder to me than thinking I was cheating on him with Mark for the sake of my job or out of pure sluttishness or something. It's okay, Mon; I really have reconciled myself to this." She got up and came forward, to take Monica's hands and look into her eyes, with a little smile. "It's very loyal of you to be so mad at him on my behalf, but you don't have to be. He is your brother, after all, and you need to get along if you can."

"O-okay," Monica stuttered, rather disoriented by this mature-sounding Rachel. "It's just ..." She simmered for a moment, then burst out, "I can't _stand_ that he's so wrong about you, and thinks _he's_ the one who's had a bad time, even if _he's_ 'gotten over it', _he_ has 'no hard feelings'." She quoted Ross's words with maximum derision, and involuntarily her hands clenched on Rachel's.

Rachel said "Ouch!" and pulled away, then put her hands on Monica's shoulders. "Mon, it's _okay_," she said again, in a calm, even voice. "And don't forget: he _did_ have a bad time, tearing himself up over it. We just have to accept that, like Phoebe said, this idea about me being in love with Mark is stuck so fast in his brain, it will take something really drastic to shake it loose."

Monica was by now so unsettled by her friend's attitude of acceptance that she blurted out the first thing that came into her head. "Suppose he did come to believe that he was wrong and, and came to say sorry? Would you take him back?"

Rachel's face went still. She held Monica's gaze for a few seconds impassively; then her face went sad and she slowly shook her head from side to side.

"Even if I could forgive him altogether," she said slowly, "which I still can't do, I couldn't trust him not to do it again over something else. No, the Rachel that really trusted him is gone, for ever." Then her face lightened, and she shook Monica. "But hey, what's this news? He's gonna be on TV some way?"

When Monica looked at her in surprise at her apparent enthusiasm, she shook her head again, gently. "I can still want him to do well, can't I? He was a friend before he was my lover, and I just can't forget how kind and helpful he was when I first came to live here – though you all were, and I've never really thanked you enough for that, especially you, for taking me in." She winced suddenly. "You know, sometimes I hear myself saying 'Maybe I'll just stay here with Monica', and I _cringe_."

Monica could not help laughing at her expression, clearly meant to suggest disgust at her old self. "That's okay, sweetie. You've been good company, and recently, I've noticed, you've even started doing more around the apartment."

Rachel looked a little embarrassed. "Well, it, it doesn't seem fair, to let you do all the work," she muttered. "Anyway, tell me about this TV thing of Ross's."

So Monica told her, and then Phoebe showed up and they told her, at which she shook her head and said it was a pity he still believed in all that crap, but if he could make a living out of it, well, good luck to him. Then they all went to tell Chandler and Joey. Although they both looked surprised at Rachel's sudden ability to talk about Ross without going into deep depression, they didn't say so, and could not help showing a little pleasure at the news, though Chandler did say rather derisively, "Who's gonna watch that?"

Monica did not tell the others about Ross's enquiries about Rachel, but to her surprise Rachel brought the topic up herself, telling the others that he had asked after them and seemed interested in what they were doing.

"And did he ask after you?" Phoebe said in a harsh voice.

"Oh yeah," said Rachel lightly, "and you know what? You talk about him believing crap, Phoebe, well, get this: he's still absolutely convinced that I was in love with Mark." She shook her head and seemed to find it mildly funny. "He was so surprised to be told we weren't together. But he put his own spin on it, didn't he, Mon?"

"You, you ... don't seem to care much," Chandler said rather tentatively, while Monica was trying to think of something to say.

"Oh, I've done most of my caring," said Rachel evenly. "That's why I can speak of him now without getting too down. But this thing, his news, maybe it shows we can't go on acting like he doesn't exist. So, if you want to go round to see him, Chandler – you were best friends for so long – please do it. I won't get mad. It's not worth it, because it won't change anything."

Monica's heart ached to hear her speaking with such resignation, but she couldn't think of an comment. Phoebe, however, could.

"I couldn't take it like that," she said, shaking her head. "If he'd done that to me ..." She banged a fist into the other palm.

"I've done a lot of thinking," said Rachel, still calmly, "and I think I'm gonna try not to get too worked up about things any more. It only makes you feel bad."

"Hey, come on, Rach," Joey protested. "If you can't get worked up about anything. how you gonna enjoy life? How you gonna get interested in a man at all?"

"Well, the things I'm likely to enjoy won't work me up too much," Rachel said, "and as for men – well, I'm back to where I was after I dumped that pig man Paolo. I hardly want to see another man just now – except my friends, of course." She smiled at Chandler and Joey.

"O-okay," said Chandler nervously.

Joey looked unhappy, but he had the sense not to say anything.

Monica decided it was time to change the subject. "So, here we all are, finally – what are we gonna do today?" she said as cheerfully as she could. "Come over to my apartment and have a coffee while we talk about it."

But they had hardly settled in when the phone rang, again. Monica looked at Rachel and rolled her eyes. "I'd better answer it," she said.

Rachel nodded.

But the person at the other end proved not to be Ross, but their mother.

"Monica, what's this Ross tells me about you putting the phone down on him?" she began fiercely. "That's no way to treat your own brother."

Monica put her hand to her head as if hoping that would clear it. This was not a discussion she wanted to have.

"Did he tell you why?" she asked, mainly as a means to give herself time to think.

"He said you were talking about Rachel and how she had fallen in love with someone else," said her mother.

Monica squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. God give me patience, she thought to herself. When she opened them again, she saw that Rachel was looking a little strained, and realised that she had the perfect excuse not to continue the discussion. "Look, mom, everyone else is here, including Rachel, so it's kind of embarrassing to be having this conversation – "

"Then go into your bedroom," said her mother sternly. "We have to discuss this."

Monica resigned herself and obediently did so. Once there she said, deliberately giving her voice a slightly impatient tone, "Okay, mom, no one can hear me now."

"Well?" said her mother severely. "What do you have to say?"

Monica drew a deep breath. "Just this, mom. I got mad, because Rachel never fell in love with anyone else. Ross developed this jealousy thing about Rachel's work colleague Mark, the one who got her the job at Bloomingdale's, and he built it up into this fantastic story. There's more to it – Ross must have told you about the big fight that led to their break-up – but the point is, we none of us believe Rachel was cheating on him. We think it's all in Ross's head."

"Oh." Her mother seemed very surprised, almost nonplussed. "You're ... you're sure? I always liked Rachel, but she could be a little ... flighty."

Monica sighed and said, managing to keep her voice even and low, "I'm sure, mom. Do you really think Rachel's the kind of person that would cheat on Ross, or act like she loves him when she's really in love with someone else?"

There was silence at the other end for a few seconds, and then her mother said, rather reluctantly, "I wouldn't have thought so, no. But people can do strange things when they're in love, and this was evidently a, a complicated situation."

It was only with the greatest effort that Monica preventing herself from yelling at her mother. As she tried desperately to control herself, her mother said, "It's difficult to believe that your brother would lie to me about this."

That calmed Monica down, for she did not believe that about Ross either. She thought for a moment and then spoke.

"Mom, I'm not saying he's lying, but, well ... " – she drew a breath – "look, what it comes down to is, no one knows what happened between Rachel and Mark that time, except them. I believe her version, because of the way she behaved then and has been behaving since, but I can't prove it. But Ross can't prove his version either, and I can tell you this for sure: Rachel shows no signs of being in love with Mark, and she never did. I'd have noticed if she was sneaking off for secret dates and stuff like that. And she's been acting really depressed and unhappy since the break-up."

"H'm," went her mother noncommittally. There was a pause, then her mother spoke again, in a more conciliatory tone. "Well, even so, I don't think it's a good thing for you and Ross to be at odds."

"No, it's not," Monica agreed. "Rachel herself doesn't want it; she said we ought to try to get along."

"H'm," went her mother again. "Well, I'm sorry about it all. Is there anything I can do to help them get back together? I had hopes, there."

"I don't think there's anything you can do, mom," said Monica firmly.

"Perhaps you can," her mother said. "Anyway, you should mend fences with him."

"Well, I'll try," said Monica. "I'll call him later and apologise for putting the phone down on him, and of course I'll talk to him more about the TV thing, which did excite us all. But he doesn't have the right to expect me to take his side against Rachel, my best friend, just because he's my brother." Feeling increasingly bold, she added, "You don't have that right, either."

"Very well," said her mother, sounding taken aback. She switched to some item of family gossip, and after a minute or so more brought the conversation to a close.

When Monica went back into the living room, she saw Rachel looking quite eager.

"Chandler had this idea for what to do, and I agree, and Phoebe's okay with it," she said. "How about a game of Monopoly?"

"Aw, not Monopoly," Joey groaned, looking pleadingly at Monica. "I always lose."

"Tell you what, Joey," said Phoebe. "I'll give you advice – for a small fee, of course."

Chandler produced a sardonic laugh and Rachel giggled, both evidently amused at Phoebe's idea that her advice would do Joey any good.

"I'm in," said Monica, pleased to see Rachel in good spirits, and also feeling her competitive instincts awakening, "and I will guarantee to beat all your asses. I'll make some coffee, like I was going to do, and then let's play!"

Everyone agreed, including Joey.


	7. Détente

Chapter 7: Détente

Author's Note: Well, here it is March 1st, and finally I am able to update. This has taken entirely too long, and I apologise. I am feeling my way here, without having a detailed plan to reach the conclusion I had in mind. I hope readers are getting something out of the ride, anyway.

-----

After a game of Monopoly that Monica enjoyed, even though she did not actually win – Joey, of all people, managed that, after an extraordinary run of luck, helped by advice from the others, all of whom Monica had gleefully driven out of business before him – she decided that she would not put off calling Ross any longer. She took the phone into a corner of the room and tapped in his number. To her surprise, a woman's voice answered; she realised after a moment that in all likelihood this was Chloe.

"Can I speak to Ross?" she asked.

"He's out doing some shopping right now," said the voice. "Can I get him to call you back?"

"I'm Monica, his sister," Monica said. "Is this Chloe?"

"Y-yes," came the slightly uncertain reply. "Er ... what are you calling for? Were you aiming to yell at him? He won't want that." She sounded protective.

Straight to the point, Monica thought. "Well, I _am_ mad at him," she admitted, "but I need to tell him sorry for slamming the phone down on him. It's just ... well, maybe you can guess. I should have known, he wouldn't change his mind about Rachel and Mark."

"Then, she's ... not going out with Mark?" Chloe said hesitantly.

"She's not going out with anyone," said Monica bluntly.

"Oh ... I'm sorry," said Chloe, sounding sincere. "He seemed so certain they were together ... Well, um, er ... she's okay, though?"

Monica looked across at Rachel, who was chatting quite cheerfully with Chandler about work experiences, of all things, and could not help smiling affectionately.

"Yeah, she's okay, more or less," she said. "She's just concentrating on her career for now."

"Well ... okay," said Chloe a little uncertainly. There was a distinct pause; then she spoke again, after a drawn-in breath that made it sound as if she was nerving herself. "Look, can I say something, about you guys and Ross?"

"Go ahead," said Monica, wondering what was coming.

"He misses you," said Chloe simply. "Is there any way you could, um, sort of ... get together again? I know, it would mean letting go a lot of things that have been said, and there's some things you would just have to, like, agree you wouldn't talk about, but ... well, I just said it, he misses you. He won't admit it, but I can see it. He's not interested in my friends, and I can see why – he's too serious for them – and he doesn't seem to have any very close friends at his work. And I know how close he was to you all. And, um, maybe I shouldn't say this, but he _is_ your brother."

Monica was nodding by the time Chloe had finished getting through this. "Yeah – my only brother. Well, it will be awkward, and I can't speak for the others, but I do want to get along with him, really. We've been quite close, as adults."

"So he's been telling me," said Chloe. Suddenly she gave a little snicker. "I guess maybe you're hinting at what I have kind of picked up, that you weren't close as teenagers. Brothers can be a pain then, can't they? I know all about that, though none of mine were older than me."

Monica found herself warming to Chloe. It's not like she's done anything really wrong, she told herself. Maybe she offered – it was pretty clear she had a crush on him – but Ross was the one who made the decision, in the end.

"Yeah, Ross was a real pain when we were kids," she said. "But since we came to New York ... Look, tell him to call me – "

"Here he is now," Chloe interrupted. "Ross, it's your sister on the phone."

After a pause, Ross said in an uneasy voice, "Monica?"

"Mom called," said Monica. "We agreed, I would say sorry for banging the phone down on you like that – though I don't see why you have to go crying to mom about it," she could not resist adding.

"Well, I'm sorry, okay, I overreacted, but it hurt," said Ross in an aggrieved tone. "I mean, here we are, brother and sister – "

"All right, all right," Monica broke in, not wanting Ross to get into a rant. "I'm sorry too. But it should show you, Ross. If we are gonna patch up this fight and get along, like mom wants, like Rachel thinks we should, you have to accept, there are things you just cannot say – "

"Hey, hold on!" he interrupted. "You did say, _Rachel_ thought we should patch this up?"

"She was talking about you and me," Monica said, "but she did also say, to all of us, something about how we can't go on acting like you don't exist. This was when I was telling them about your TV thing. She's pleased for you, Ross, we all are – even Phoebe was sort of pleased."

"That's ... nice to know," said Ross a bit uncertainly. "So ... what now? Yeah, I would like to patch things up, in fact I want you to meet Chloe and see what a nice person she is. But how can we manage this, if I can't come to the apartment or to Central Perk?"

Monica thought, and decided to commit herself. "Come to Central Perk," she said. "I'll square it with Gunther. Let's decide on a time, and I'll warn everyone, and they can come or stay away as they please. You may get some of that," she added after a brief pause. "You should know, Phoebe's still very bitter about it all."

"Okay," said Ross, "how about next Saturday, about eleven thirty in the morning? Gives you time to do some cleaning and shopping before."

Monica could not help smiling at how he knew her routine. "Eleven thirty it is," she said, "and, yeah, I'd like to meet Chloe. I'm the only one who hasn't at least seen her."

"Yeah, that's right," said Ross, sounding as if he'd only just realised this. "Okay, I'll do that, and I'll understand if Rachel stays away. But, well, I'd like to, to see her again some time."

"I'll tell her," said Monica. "So, see you then."

When she reported these conversations to everyone else, and what she had agreed with Ross, everyone else looked at Rachel, and so did she, a little nervously; but she did not think that Rachel would go back on what she had said.

Rachel seemed to tense just a little, but then she relaxed and nodded. "Yeah, go ahead."

"You're gonna let him do this?" said Phoebe in a tone of outrage. "Just walk in again like nothing's happened, with his new girlfriend?"

As Monica was saying, "It was my idea, Phoebe," Rachel said, rather more emphatically, "Well, I'll have to think about whether I can stand to see Ross with Chloe. I could just about live with seeing him with Julie, but it sure hurt. But now it's different, because I'm certain I don't want him back, and I don't want to be the cause of some big rift between Ross and Monica." She smiled at Monica. "You've been so loyal. If you want this, I shouldn't stand in the way."

Monica smiled back. "Thanks, sweetie." She turned to Phoebe. "How about you? Chloe said, we're all gonna have to let go things that have been said, so I guess she's not gonna act mad at you."

Phoebe frowned. "And I'm not supposed to act mad at Ross, is that it?"

"Well, it won't be much of a get-together if you do," Chandler commented rather acidly.

"You really want this, don't you?" said Phoebe to Monica.

Monica sighed. It looked as if Phoebe might be difficult. "You know how close we've been," she said. "I miss that."

"Okay," said Phoebe in a resigned way. "Well, if Rachel is okay with it ... but maybe I'll show up, and maybe I won't." She gave Monica a rather defiant look.

"I'm not making this a kind of requirement, Phoebe," said Monica in a mildly reproving tone. "Guys, you're okay with this? Joey, you haven't said anything."

"Things haven't felt right without him," said Joey after a moment. "I'll show up."

"Yeah, me too," said Chandler. "Joey's talking sense, believe it or not."

-----

When Saturday finally arrived, Monica woke early and immediately tensed up as she remembered what was arranged for later that morning. She could not help worrying how Rachel would be feeling. But when Rachel finally left her room to go for a shower – she normally slept late at weekends – she seemed what was now her normal self, a bit subdued compared with how she had been when she was dating Ross, but reasonably cheerful. By the time she started having breakfast, Chandler and Joey had finished and left – Phoebe had not come in – and Monica was washing the dishes. She found that she could not stop herself looking at Rachel, to see if she was okay. In a while Rachel noticed and looked up.

"It's okay, Mon," she said, with a quirky little grin. "I'm not gonna bust out crying or throw a fit or anything. But I've decided, I won't come to Central Perk to meet Ross. I don't think I can handle that yet."

Monica sighed. "Well, that's understandable, sweetie."

Rachel nodded slowly. "I have been thinking," she said, "and I can see, we would be doomed if we did ever try to start something again. I just can't trust him, and obviously he can't trust me either. And you know what? He may think he could handle being just friends again, but I have my doubts. Not yet anyway; better just to sit it out a while." She looked rather sombre for a moment, then sat up and looked brighter. "Now, do you want me to help you tidy the apartment, or do you wanna go shopping and let me start on it?"

"I'll go shopping," Monica said, "just as soon as I've finished this. Thanks, sweetie."

When Monica returned from shopping, she noticed that Rachel had tidied the apartment reasonably well, and was sitting reading a magazine, looking quite relaxed.

"I called Phoebe," she said. "We're gonna hit the shops together."

Monica suppressed a sigh. It was too much to expect Rachel to be ready to see Ross with his new girlfriend, but she had not anticipated that Phoebe would be so implacable.

"Any idea why Phoebe is so mad about this?" she said. "I mean, I don't want to put you down, sweetie, but I wouldn't have said she was as close to you as, well, as I am."

"You know what I think?" said Rachel, showing a trace of impishness. "Phoebe's mad because she wanted me and Ross to be lobsters, and plainly we aren't."

Monica was pleased with this. If Rachel can make humorous comments like that, she thought, she's coming along well.

Then Phoebe burst into the room, plainly very enthusiastic about the idea of going shopping, and in a very short time Monica was bidding them farewell. Then there was nothing to do except wait until it was time to go down to Central Perk. Feeling nervous again, she looked around for something to clean. There were things that Rachel had missed, or not thought important ...

By eleven o'clock she could stand it no longer and went across to Chandler and Joey's to see if they were ready for coffee. They were playing foosball, so naturally she challenged them, but for once her concentration was off and they beat her handily, although in a re-match she beat Chandler alone, which cheered her. Then all agreed that they were ready for Central Perk.

It was not too busy at that time in the morning, and they hung around the counter to pick up their drinks. Earlier in the week Monica had taken an opportunity to inform Gunther that Ross would be coming in, probably with his new girlfriend, "but Rachel won't be here," she said, "and there won't be any trouble, I'm sure, so don't bar him, Gunther, please."

"Okay," said Gunther calmly. Then a look of alarm had appeared on his face. "But I hope this doesn't mean Rachel will stop coming in."

"Oh no," said Monica. "She's okay with our meeting up with Ross, and I'm sure she'll be ready to meet him again some time, but not yet."

Gunther had definitely looked relieved; now he simply nodded when she reminded him. Chandler and Joey took seats on the couch and the neighbouring armchair respectively, so Monica sat next to Chandler. For a while no one said anything; Monica could not think of anything to say. Plainly this made Chandler uneasy, but for once he did not come out with one of his jokey comments.

"How is Rachel about this really?" he asked Monica earnestly. "Is she gonna be mad at us?"

"I really don't think so," said Monica. "I'd say she's handling it pretty well. Don't forget, this was partly her idea. She doesn't want some great tremendous feud to build up, which is good, because I don't want that either, even if I do think Ross has behaved like an asshole."

"You can say that again," Joey growled.

Chandler opened his mouth, evidently to do just that, then must have thought it was too obvious, because he looked a little sheepish and shut his mouth again. And then the door opened and there they were – Ross and Chloe together. One of the positive sides of this, from Joey's point of view, was another chance to take in Chloe, but to his disappointment no belly button ring was in sight. Rather, she was quite modestly dressed, in a little jacket over a shirt, and a skirt and not too flashy high heels. At least the skirt was notably short, and the high heels made her legs appear to good advantage.

"Hi, guys," said Ross rather nervously. "Now, Chloe, you know Chandler and Joey, but you haven't met Monica my sister."

Chandler and Joey nodded, and Monica got to her feet, shook Chloe's hand, and beckoned her to sit next to her, on the other end of the couch from Chandler. Ross asked Chloe what she would like before she sat down. She asked for a mocha latte, and then smiled a little nervously at everyone. For a moment it looked as if silence would break out again, but then Chloe said to Monica in a deliberately quiet voice, apparently not wanting Ross to hear, "I'm so glad you agreed to this. Ross has been looking forward to it for days. But it looks like Rachel's not happy about it, after all."

"Well, would you be?" said Monica. "But I can promise you this, because she said it in my hearing. She doesn't want him back. She just needs more time to adjust."

"I understand," said Chloe. "And is Phoebe still mad at us?"

"She said to me, she's taking her time," Joey said, leaning forward.

"She's shopping with Rachel," said Monica.

"Shopping is very important to Rachel," Chandler explained to Chloe. "It's her all-purpose therapy."

Chloe grinned. "I can relate to that. I find it helpful sometimes."

Then Ross returned with Chloe's coffee and his own.

"Rachel and Phoebe are out shopping," Chloe informed him.

He looked slightly disappointed for a moment, then nodded. "Figures," he said in a resigned sort of way. He sat and looked around.

"Well, you, er, you know what's new with me," he said. "So what's new with you guys?"

"What's this?" said Chandler. "No riveting blow-by-blow account of your dinosaur panel?"

Ross grinned weakly. "Chloe's heard it all once. She told me, she didn't want to hear it again."

"Yes, Dr. Geller, the class could use a break," said Chloe, grinning. "There is such a thing as too much dinosaurs, you know."

This sentiment went straight to Monica's heart. "Well said!" she cried without even stopping to think, then wondered if Ross might choose to take umbrage. But he was smiling as Chloe looked at him teasingly.

"Most of the time she'll let me tell her stuff," he said to the others. "But I have to recognise, there is a limit."

"Hallelujah," said Chandler emphatically. "Chloe, if you can cut the dinosaur quota per week, you'll earn the gratitude of everyone here."

"Huh," went Ross in a disgruntled way. "Well, I think dinosaurs are more interesting than Wenuses."

Chloe gave a little shriek of laughter. "What's a Wenus? Is that something in your work, Chandler?"

"Weekly Estimated Net Usage System," Chandler said in a deliberately dreary monotone. "It's an important guide to our productivity – important to my bosses, anyway."

"That sounds kinda hard," said Chloe. "We just get assessed on the amount of copy work we get through and how many customer complaints we rack up, that kind of thing."

"Yeah, and they don't care if a complaint is justified or not," said Ross. "Some guy doesn't work out how what he wants is gonna look, and then he has the nerve to complain about it." He sounded mad on Chloe's behalf.

"I bet that's not the real reason," said Joey, grinning rakishly. "The real reason is, he wants another look at Chloe."

Ross glared at him, but Chloe giggled. "Well, maybe. Actually, I can often talk them out of making a complaint we have to log."

"I'll bet you can," said Joey, with maximum innuendo. Chloe grinned and winked.

Monica felt pleased. Chloe seemed to enjoy half-flirting with Joey and Chandler, and if Ross seemed not to care for this, at least in Joey's case, at least he didn't object openly. He seemed more subdued than normal and di not take much part in the conversation, until after a while he suggested that Chandler change places with Monica, so they could talk. He asked her how things were going with Pete.

"Fine," said Monica, feeling somehow warmer and brighter at the mention of her boyfriend. "But he's away on business at the moment. He's back tomorrow, though, and we have a dinner date. Talking of dating, Phoebe was dating two guys at once not long ago, but one walked into Central Perk when the other was there, and the end of it was, they both dumped her, one after the other." She laughed; she thought it was really quite funny.

Ross smiled half-heartedly. "What about Rachel?" he said. "There really is nothing going on with Mark? Suddenly, he's not interested?" He sounded incredulous.

Monica looked at him seriously. "Ross, don't you remember me saying, if we're to get along, there's things you just can't say? One of them is anything to do with Mark."

Ross shook his head, looking discontented. "Well, I can't understand it ..." he muttered, then, sounding hopeful, "Is she dating someone else, then?"

"No," said Monica shortly, hoping he would now get off this topic.

"What's the matter with the men in this city?" said Ross in an annoyed tone.

"Ross, I just don't think she's interested in dating at the moment," Monica said, her patience beginning to fray. "She's putting a lot of effort into her career – like I told you."

"Well, I, I guess that's a good thing," he said, his mood seeming to lighten. "And if she's out shopping, that, that's good Rachel behaviour."

"Yeah, she hasn't done much of that for a while," said Monica, not having thought about it before. "So, you and Chloe seem to be doing well."

"Oh, she's great!" said Ross, smiling broadly. "Don't you think so?" he added a little anxiously.

"I like her," said Monica. "She's good for you, I think."

"I've never had someone quite like her," Ross said. "She's not very into intellectual things, but she's smart, and she's not ambitious, but she's interested in her job and wants to do it well."

"Mmm," went Monica, forbearing to comment that something very similar could be said about Rachel, once she'd got the Bloomingdale's job. Something occurred to her.

"You guys doing anything about lunch? Maybe you and Chloe and I could go off somewhere, and have a kind of family lunch, if we can ditch the two puppies."

She looked indulgently at Chandler and Joey, who were blatantly competing for Chloe's attention. Chloe, very sensibly, was keeping the conversation general, laughing at their jokes and digs at each other, and making it quite clear that she was taking it all in fun, even Joey's rather insinuating compliments. Ross, she saw, was looking at Joey in a slightly hostile way, so she pulled at his sleeve.

"Don't you worry about her and Joey," she said in a low voice. "It's obvious to me, she's just playing along and not taking him seriously at all."

Ross's face cleared. "Yeah, you're right. It's just ... it's hard, you know, trying to convince yourself that a girl wouldn't prefer Joey ..."

"If Chloe had wanted someone like Joey, I bet she could have picked a dozen out of the copy shop customers," Monica murmured. "In fact, she could have picked Joey himself; he and Chandler used to go there to ogle her, didn't they? But she wanted you."

Ross brightened considerably. "Yeah." He smiled at her. "Thanks, Mon. And the lunch idea is great, but how are we gonna shake the guys?"

"I know how," said Monica. She raised her voice. "Guys, Ross and I want to talk family and personal stuff, which will likely bore the pants off you, so why don't we split up for lunch and we can meet back at the apartment later, before I go to work?"

Joey looked reluctant, but Chandler nudged him in the ribs and said, "Sure, Monica. Hey, is there anything in your fridge we can use for lunch?"

Monica groaned theatrically, but then thought that actually this could work out well. Rachel would have someone to talk with when she got back from shopping, and they could give her an account of how the meeting went.

"Yeah, you can look in there, and you know there's plenty in my cupboards," she said. "Help yourselves."

Joey jumped to his feet. "C'mon, dude, I'm hungry," he announced, and set off without waiting to see if Chandler would follow. Shrugging and grimacing at Monica and Ross, Chandler went after him.

"It's like I've never been away," said Ross happily. "So, Monica, I just remembered, you said Pete wants you to run this restaurant ..."

-----

It was past two thirty when Monica finally returned to the apartment, feeling very cheerful. She and Ross had a useful talk about the pros and cons of working in Pete's restaurant. He acknowledged that there were difficulties in working for your boyfriend and confirmed her in her belief that it was better for her to turn it down, regretfully of course. Instead, he suggested that she really put some effort into building up her free-lance catering work.

"Look at how well you did with Richard's party," he said. "Mom said he raved about your food, and that had nothing to do with his falling for you, because he wasn't the only one who ate it. Same at Carol's wedding: that was really good. You could make a go of it, I'm sure."

"Yeah!" said Monica, suddenly taken with the idea. "And you know what? Phoebe was a perfectly good waitress when I was at Richard's. We could make a great team."

"I can loan you money to get more equipment, if you need it," he offered.

"I'm still paying you back for the last loan," she objected.

"Maybe you should make a company and sell shares," said Chloe. "Then we could all buy some and share the profits."

"That's assuming there'd be any profits," said Monica lightly. "I need to do some figuring, and talk to Phoebe, because I'll need an assistant, but, hey, it's an idea! Thanks, big bro."

"You're welcome," he said, smiling at her affectionately. She smiled back, happy that they had established a good relationship again.

As well as having this fruitful discussion, Monica got to know Chloe better and learned a lot about her background, and decided that she could be perfectly happy to accept her as Ross's girlfriend. She and Ross also did some serious talking about future meetings, and agreed that, to avoid possible difficulties, he wouldn't show up in Central Perk too often, with or without Chloe, but make more occasional visits, until things had settled down more, and try to warn her ahead of time.

"I can only take so much of Chandler's gags, anyway," Ross quipped.

"Oh, I think he's _funny_!" said Chloe enthusiastically. "But he does do it rather a lot, doesn't he?"

Monica rolled her eyes. "Only like all of the time."

"He needs a girlfriend," said Chloe authoritatively.

"We all know that," said Monica with slight impatience. "But the one woman who truly loved him, well, it's a long story, but they broke up because she was married and had a daughter, and he didn't want to break up a family."

Chloe looked slightly perplexed. "If she truly loved him, why did she marry someone else?"

"Like Monica says, it's a long story," said Ross. "Why don't you let me tell it to you in a while?"

He looked at Monica in an almost pleading way, and Monica got the message: Ross was eager for some alone time with Chloe. She reached for her purse, but Ross shook his head at her.

"My treat," he said firmly, and Monica was happy to let him have his way. She bade him a fond farewell, gave Chloe a little hug, and set out for the apartment, feeling pleased with how things had gone and already thinking over what to tell Rachel, if she was there yet. Of course, she would probably get some account from Chandler and Joey, but they would know nothing about her lunch meeting with Ross and Chloe.

As she had rather expected, she found that even Rachel could not maintain an enthusiasm for shopping beyond a certain point, and was back, along with Phoebe, and of course Chandler and Joey were still there. Rachel was in fact modelling an outfit she had bought for them, to considerable acclaim from the men. She was looking as if she was having a good time.

"Hi guys!" Monica said exuberantly. "Did you buy lots of stuff, Rachel?"

"Did she ever!" said Chandler fondly. "The lettering on her credit card must be worn flat, it went into so many slots. And now we're getting a free fashion show."

"Yeah, but she won't show us the new bikini she bought," said Joey discontentedly.

Rachel giggled. "Be fair, Joey. I showed it to you all right, but no way am I gonna put it on. It's not the right setting." She grinned at Monica. "So, I hear you had a family reunion?" Her tone was one of innocent enquiry.

"Yeah," said Monica cautiously, not quite able to gauge Rachel's attitude from her tone of voice. "You, you are okay with that, aren't you?"

"Sure," said Rachel. "I said, I didn't want some big feud between you. And the lovely Chloe was there as well, I'm told. What's she like, really? I only got a glimpse of her."

"She's _hot_," said Joey emphatically.

"I know that already, Joey," said Rachel with an air of patience. "The way you and Chandler used to go on about her ..."

"She's fun to talk to," said Chandler. "Oh, and she keeps Ross in order: no surfeit of dinosaurs."

Rachel nodded, but her eyes were fixed on Monica. "What did you think, Mon?"

Monica tried to remember some of the phrases she had thought of. "I think, well, she's nice, and friendly, and sort of good for Ross. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't rather that you were with him."

Rachel shook her head. "Thanks, Mon, but ... never gonna happen." Her voice was quite calm.

Monica racked her brains for something else to say. "You know, he asked after you. He found it very hard to believe that nothing was going on with Mark."

"He expected me to be dating Mark, after you got so mad at him for talking like we were together?" said Rachel incredulously.

"Clearly, he found it very hard to give up the idea," Monica said. "But when I made it plain, you weren't dating Mark, he then seemed to want you to be dating someone else. He didn't like the idea that you had nobody."

Rachel smiled faintly. "Yeah. I remember when he was with Julie, and he was telling me all this stuff about how I deserved to be with someone who appreciated me. Of course, things were very different then. But he was really ... complimentary." She paused before the last word, and there was just the trace of a catch in her voice.

There was a short silence, and then Phoebe growled, "So he should be."

Rachel gave a little snicker. "Thanks, Pheebs. Okay, c'mon, let's not dwell on the past. Mon, you just have to see this gorgeous evening dress I bought."

"We all have to see it," said Joey insistently.

"Okay, Joey," said Rachel in an indulgent tone. "You did like it, didn't you? Well, you can see it again, but no getting up and wandering casually past my bedroom door while I'm changing, okay?"

Monica caught Phoebe's eye and both nodded slightly. Rachel was really getting back to her old self.


	8. A Little More Poker

Chapter 8: A Poker Game, and After

Chapter 8: A Little More Poker 

Author's Note: Well, I've been trying to move the story forwards, in the intervals of doing other things, and this is all I feel confident about so far. It is not a re-run of The One With All The Poker (1,18), as will become clear, but it does refer back to it. The detail on the poker may bore people who are not familiar with the game, or don't like it, but the play needs to be described in some detail to explain what is going on. "Pot limit" means, as will become clear in the account, that you can never bet more than is in the pot at the time, but it allows you to bet up to that at any point in the betting.

Thanks as usual to Cress for valuable input on a first draft.

"Rach, we're, um, planning a poker night Friday," Monica said to Rachel on Wednesday morning the following week, in a slightly uneasy way.

The uneasiness did not go unnoticed by Rachel. "I'm guessing, Ross is gonna be one of the players," she said calmly.

"Yes, and Chloe too," said Monica. "When she heard we used to play, she was wild to have a game. She claims to have been a 'fanatical' player at college."

"Fanatical." Rachel smiled. "I wonder how she'll take to playing with Ross, then. He could be pretty competitive, I seem to remember. Who else is in? You, obviously, the guys ... Pete?"

Monica shook her head. "He never liked the game, he says."

"Phoebe?"

"She said she might take a hand, but she'd like to watch anyway," said Monica.

There was a pause. Rachel looked at Monica searchingly. "And you're bringing this up with me, why? Could it be because you'd like to have it in here?"

Monica nodded, looking guilty. "It's less cramped than the other apartments, and I have the best supplies of munchies and stuff, and, well ... you know." She looked at Rachel in appeal. "With Phoebe ready to put in an appearance, it really feels like things are getting back to something like normal, and, and I want that, you know."

Rachel nodded. "Okay, Mon. But if you're working up to asking me if I would come, forget it." Her voice was light, but with a hint of firmness. "I think it will be best for all concerned if I stay well away, however nice you tell me Chloe is. Suppose, just suppose, I won some big hand against her – or against Ross – you think he wouldn't take it personally?"

"Well, I wouldn't like to bet against it," said Monica. She began to seem a little desperate. "Look, why don't we try to find you a good date? Didn't you say there were nice guys where Chandler works, that you met at that Christmas party?"

Rachel laughed. "Good try, but no, I still don't feel much like dating. How long is this poker party gonna go on, anyway?"

"Oh, not too late into the night, I guess," Monica said. "At least, Ross and Chloe generally seem to ... turn in early." She looked apprehensively at Rachel as she said this.

Rachel laughed again, seeming genuinely amused. "Well, well, Ross can't get enough of her, huh? Okay, I don't wanna seem like a party-pooper. Why don't I find a movie to watch – I could go see Titanic again – and if I come back and the game's still going on, I'll hang out in the guys' apartment."

"Thanks, Rachel," said Monica, sounding definitely relieved. "I promise I'll get that organised, and as a thank you I'll cook your favourite meal, but it can't be tonight, because I'm going out with Pete."

Rachel smiled. "I'll take a rain check – and, of course, I'll want to know all about the poker game."

"Okay," said Monica. She pulled a face. "Maybe I can get a handle on the damn game this time."

Rachel grinned. "Want some pointers? Not that I know all that much; I just got lucky with my hands."

"Maybe we could talk about it, closer to the time," said Monica. "Is there anything you'd like me to whip up for you now, something quick and easy?"

Rachel gave her an affectionate smile. "It's too early to think about what I might like to eat, but thanks for the thought."

"Not straight stud _again_, Chloe!" Joey moaned, and certain noises from Chandler and Monica suggested that they felt the same way.

"What have you got against straight stud?" said Chloe, looking puzzled.

"It's _boring_," he said. "There's no wild cards, no change, and you have to sit through all these rounds of betting to know what your full hand is."

"But that's precisely why it's such a great game!" said Chloe with the enthusiasm of the true fan. "It's just you and your cards, pitted against the others and their cards. No flop, like in Texas Hold 'Em, the tournament game. It's pure poker." She grinned again, rather wolfishly.

Not for the first time, Monica felt that Chloe took her poker way too seriously. She was the one who had asked them to play pot limit, so that there was more scope for applying pressure in the betting. She was the one who insisted on following poker etiquette and passing discards and folded hands directly to the dealer, so that no one could get a chance to see cards that someone else had held, claiming that was a way of getting an unfair advantage. She did not object if people showed or told what they had had, but Monica got a strong feeling that she did not approve. All this, along with her rather aggressive style of play, had introduced a much greater element of competitiveness into the game, of a kind that Monica could not seem to adapt to, maybe because it did not involve teams, but everyone competing against everyone else.

"But you start with so little to go on, to size up your chances," she now complained.

"Yeah, it's tough, all right," said Chloe. "A real woman's game." She snickered. "What, can't stand the heat, you guys? C'mon, I don't complain about the variations you choose. Tell you what, I promise I'll deal something else next time. How's that?"

"Okay, I guess," said Chandler, and Joey and Monica grunted in assent.

"Right, here they come," said Chloe. She dealt round one card face down, then another face up. She showed a queen, Ross a king, the others various middling cards.

"King bets," she said.

Ross put in fifty cents, and Chloe called, also Chandler with a ten showing, while Monica and Joey folded.

The next cards came round, and now Ross got a jack, Chandler a nine, and Chloe a king, which gave her first bet. She checked, Chandler folded, and Ross pushed in a dollar chip.

"See it, and up two," Chloe said briskly, putting down three chips.

Ross grinned at her challengingly. So far that night, although they had been in several hands together, it had not come down to a real contest between them. Ross clearly admired Chloe's style of play, but Monica wondered if he was hoping to show himself the better player.

"You trying to pretend you've got a king in the hole?" he said jocularly. "Okay, I'm willing to pay to find out." He threw in two dollar chips.

"We'll see who's pretending," said Chloe with a sly grin as she dealt out the next cards.

The fourth cards were a seven and a six, no obvious use to either of them. Chloe checked again, but Ross was not going to fall for the check-raise a second time and checked also. Their fifth cards, again, were of no obvious use, not pairing anything that either had on the table. Monica thought that Ross's face showed a hint of disappointment.

Chloe still had the bet, with a king-queen showing against Ross's king-jack. She didn't check this time.

"Ten dollars," she said in a voice of doom, banging down a tall stack that equalled the pot so far.

Ross blinked, while others gasped and Phoebe made an excited noise. She had been the one who seemed to relish Chloe's style of play and the competition that it could produce. Monica recognised the tactic of applying pressure by a sudden increase in the bet, but it had not involved anything like as much money before.

After a pause, Ross said decisively, "Your ten and up ten," pushing in two stacks.

"Your ten, and up twenty," said Chloe immediately, shoving in almost all of what she had left on the table.

"Wow!" said Phoebe admiringly.

"The Cincinnati Kid rides again!" Chandler muttered.

Ross looked definitely taken aback. He gazed at the cards, and at Chloe's face. She flashed him a fierce grin, then took a pretence cigarette from her lips and pretended to tap ashes into an imaginary ash tray in a very cool and deliberate manner. "Only gonna cost you twenty more to find out," she said calmly, "unless of course you wanna raise again, in which case – pass me my purse, would you, Monica?"

The tension seemed to increase at this casually delivered request. Phoebe started a snicker, then quickly covered her mouth.

Ross looked at Chloe in a rather hostile fashion, then counted his chips. He barely had twenty left. He grunted, pulled a face, shifted in his chair, and then glared at Chloe. "I don't think you'd come on so strong, if you hadn't got it," he growled. "Fold."

"Ha _ha_!" cried Chloe triumphantly, and proceeded to rake in the chips.

"Yeah, you got him, Chloe!" said Phoebe in an approving tone. "You the _man_!"

Joey and Chandler made rather more muted congratulatory noises, but Monica kept quiet. She did not think Ross liked being backed down in front of all of them.

"So, did you have it – a king in the hole, or maybe queens back to back?" Ross enquired casually, as he flipped his cards across to Chandler, the next dealer.

"Not _telling_ you!" carolled Chloe tunefully.

"Aw, come on," he said more earnestly. "I'll tell you: I had a pair of jacks."

"Well, thank you for that information," she said merrily, "but I feel no obligation to tell you anything back."

Ross frowned, and suddenly reached a hand forward to her cards, which she had left on the table for Chandler to pick up while she sorted her winnings. Instantly Chloe slapped her hand down on Ross's, trapping it with his fingers actually touching the cards. He gave a little "Ouch!" and looked at her in evident shock.

"Don't you _dare_," she said, clearly angry. "You have _no _right to know what my hole card was. Really, Ross, I'm surprised at you! Now, pull that hand back at once." She raised her fingers a little.

Looking very disgruntled, Ross removed his hand and shook it.

"Hey, take it easy, Chloe," said Joey, sounding a bit irritated. "He's just curious, that's all."

"Yeah, it's no big deal," said Chandler.

"No big deal?" said Chloe incredulously. "You mean, when you guys played together, you'd let him look at what you had hidden, or what you won with if there was no showdown?"

Chandler looked at Joey. "Well, no, we just told him, if he asked," he said.

Chloe shook her head from side to side. "But don't you see, you're giving Ross information he can file away in that big brain of his on how you play, whether you're the kind who runs a bluff, and if so on what kind of hand, if you'll bet on nothing for the hell of it, all that. You're giving him an _advantage_."

Chandler shifted uneasily. "Hell, Chloe, it's just a friendly game."

Chloe cocked her head. "When you're playing for money, I don't think there is such a thing as a 'friendly game'," she said. "And even if you aren't playing for money, poker is all about competing. That's why you hate losing, eh Monica?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became chilly. From their expressions, Chandler and Joey evidently felt that they had the right to tease Monica about her competitiveness, but they weren't happy with Chloe doing it. Even Ross looked rather irritated.

"Lay off Monica," Joey growled, after a moment.

Chloe looked at him. "What's the beef? You all tease her, and anyway I don't hear Ross complaining – or Monica. You didn't take offence, did you, Monica?"

Put on the spot, Monica could only mutter, "No, of course not."

"Ross?" said Chloe lightly.

After a moment Ross said, "I think we all need to calm down and stop taking things so seriously." He looked at Chloe. "Including you."

Chloe froze. "Oh," she said. "Yes. I see. I get it. There's the inner circle, who get to do what they want and decide how things should go, and the outer circle, who should be lucky if any notice is taken of what they want at all." She got to her feet abruptly and pushed her chips towards Chandler, who was acting as the banker. "Cash me in."

"You're taking all the money out of the game!" Joey objected angrily.

"My privilege," said Chloe curtly. "Any player can back out at any time. Sorry if this breaks up the game, but if I'm gonna be made to feel like I'm not an equal at this table, then I see no point in playing."

Amid a now distinctly uncomfortable silence she took her money, looked over at Ross and said, "Call me," then collected her coat and headed for the door. "Thanks for the support, Phoebe," she said as she opened the door.

Phoebe did not reply, and Chloe left.

"You should have kept your mouth shut, Joey," said Phoebe when she had gone. "Okay, she's a bit too serious about her poker, I can see that, but that, her against you, Ross, that was so exciting!"

Ross did not respond. He was looking distinctly gloomy.

"Why did you try to look at her hole card, Ross?" said Monica gently. "Surely you remember that Rachel didn't like it, when you tried to see her cards."

"You weren't _really_ trying to get some kind of advantage, were you?" said Joey.

Ross shook his head. "No, it's ... hard to explain, but it's like ... wanting to have all the data about someone. Chloe's quite different when she plays poker and that's ... fascinating. But she was never caught out in a bluff, and I just wondered, would she do that? I think, that was why I wanted to see what Rachel had. It would show such a different side of her, if she could actually try to bluff."

There was a silence as they digested this. Then Chandler said, "Well, will you call her?"

Ross's face got gloomier. "I don't know."

"You should explain to her, like you did to us," said Phoebe. "If she loves you, she should accept it."

Ross did not look convinced. "You think you know someone," he said, and shook his head.

"Well, are we going on?" said Chandler, who was still holding the pack, tapping it on the table. "We could buy more chips."

After a moment's pause, Joey said gruffly, "I don't feel like it any more."

"Yeah," said Monica, "let's play something else. If Rach has come back from her movie, we could get her in," she added, momentarily forgetting how awkward that would be, with Ross still there.

Ross got to his feet. "I should go talk to Chloe," he said heavily, "or try to, anyway. Thanks for the game, guys. 'Night, Mon."

They responded with muted farewells, and Monica followed him to the door. "I hope this isn't serious," she said, looking at him in a worried way. "It would be dumb to break up, just over a game of poker."

Ross shook his head. "Chloe clearly takes her poker so seriously that she might not think it dumb." He sighed. "And, you know, she did show kind of a worrying side to her character tonight. All that aggression! It ... well, it did make me think."

Monica sighed too, as she went back inside the apartment. Was what she had come to think of as a rather promising relationship now in jeopardy?

End Note: Okay, this is very short, but it would weaken the impact, I think, to tack more stuff on afterwards. As it is, you have something of a cliffhanger: will this incident seriously affect Ross and Chloe's relationship? And to those who might question whether Chloe would behave like this, I reply, how do you know? We are given very little indication of her character, and anyway, people can behave differently in different circumstances.


	9. Jobs and Relationships

Chapter 9:

Chapter 9: Jobs and Relationships 

Author's Note: Okay, I commit myself. This chapter has not been beta'd, but it has been delayed too long already. It still does not cover all that I wanted to cover (it is taking longer than I thought to flesh out the bones of my original idea, but I am now getting closer to the end), and may not seem as interesting as some; its main function is to move things along, and it will take the form of a series of chronologically spaced episodes rather than a continuous narrative. As I have said already, in my Note to ch. 6, it is not my intention to provide a full alternative version of later Season 3 (and we are now getting into Season 4 territory). As will become evident to those who know these seasons well, I am altering the order in which events happen, and many incidents that happen in the show are being totally omitted, because they cannot have happened in this AU (e.g. Ross's relationship with Bonnie), or because they are irrelevant to my storyline, which is, obviously, concentrating on Ross and Rachel.

Some dialogue from episode 4,9, The One Where They're Going to Party, is made use of below.

Major correction: reference to Kathy has been removed and text changed - as Cress points out, Kathy is a feature of Season 4.

--

Rachel was rather surprised to find, on returning from her movie, that the poker game was over. Phoebe had gone home, but Chandler and Joey were sitting with Monica, watching TV without much interest.

"So, what happened?" she enquired. "Did Ross clean everyone out?"

"More like, Chloe did," Joey said resentfully. "She walked off with most of the money, and we didn't feel like playing on."

Rachel looked questioning.

"Chloe chose to, um, take offence at something Ross did," said Chandler slowly.

Between them, they explained what had happened. Rachel seemed quite impressed.

"Well, I say, good for Chloe, for sticking up for what she believes in," she said. "So, she really outplayed Ross?"

"Yeah," said Monica. "That did seem rather clear."

"How he must have hated to fold!" Rachel continued. She seemed to get a certain pleasure from the thought. "I wonder, did she actually have that hole card, or did she just bluff the pants off him? That would really chap his ass." She snickered just a trifle maliciously.

Chandler got to his feet. "Well, I think I've had enough excitement for tonight," he announced. "I'm off to bed."

"Yeah," said Joey, getting up also. "See you tomorrow."

When they had left, Rachel looked at Monica with a more serious expression.

"Do you think Ross is gonna get all upset and sulky about this?" she asked.

Monica shook her head. "No, that wasn't how he was acting when he left. But he did seem sort of uncertain about the relationship, like he wasn't happy about discovering this side of Chloe."

"He'd be a fool if he broke up with her over a game of poker," said Rachel firmly.

"That's what I said to him," said Monica, forebearing to mention that the way he had broken up with Rachel showed Ross to be quite capable of folly.

"Well, I guess that's the last poker game you'll host," said Rachel lightly, "and maybe you aren't too unhappy about that."

Monica grinned. "You got it. I still don't like the damn game."

The following morning, while they were at breakfast, the phone rang. It was Ross, and he sounded jubilant.

"We've made up," he said excitedly. "Chloe agreed, she overreacted, and accepted that I wasn't trying to cheat, and I admitted, I shouldn't have done it when I knew how seriously she took her poker."

"That's good," said Monica, feeling considerable relief. The prospect of Ross moping around because another relationship had collapsed had not been attractive. "So, I guess we'll see you two at Central Perk this evening."

"We'll be there," said Ross happily.

When Monica passed this on to the others, there was silence for a moment. Then Phoebe said, "Well, I guess that proves it. Ross can, like, learn from his mistakes."

"Yeah," said Rachel. She sounded unhappy, and seemed a bit tense.

"You all right, sweetie?" said Monica, looking at her worriedly.

Rachel appeared to relax. She gave Monica a little smile. "I guess. I was just thinking, why couldn't Ross have handled _our_ problem as quickly and simply as that? But, okay, there was more serious stuff than a game of poker involved there." She got to her feet. "Better be off to work. Big rush in ordering today, and Joanna's put me in charge of it all." She sounded proud. "And I heard, there's a new opening coming up in Junior Miss: I'm gonna apply for that, and my application will need some work."

"You want to be careful, Rach, or you'll end up an executive before you know it," said Chandler jokingly. "Believe me, it's not worth it. The extra money does not balance the extra hassle."

Rachel gave him a serious look. "You know, Chandler, sometimes I think you should consider changing your line of work. You seem to get so little out of what you do."

Chandler looked uneasy, but turned it off. "Do I detect a whiff of _ambition_?"

"Sure you do," said Rachel evenly. "Most of us have an ambition, don't we? Joey wants to be a great actor, Monica to run her own restaurant, Ross to be a famous paleontologist ..." She turned to Phoebe. "What's your ambition, Pheebs?"

"Oh, to find out the _real_ reason why we're here," said Phoebe cheerfully, "and establish world peace, of course."

"What about the bigger boobs?" said Joey, remembering what Phoebe had said she would do if omnipotent.

"Well, that too," said Phoebe seriously. "In fact, I'm trying to find out if there's a, like, natural way of getting them."

"You find that out and market it, and you'll make your fortune," said Chandler. "Anyway, you have a point, Rachel: time to get to work." He left the room hastily, followed by Joey.

Monica shook her head at Rachel. "You shouldn't put pressure on him. Okay, so he's in a job he doesn't enjoy, but so are lots of people. If he's gonna jump ship, let him decide to do it in his own time."

"Well, okay," said Rachel, "but it's so frustrating, you know. I mean, he'll take our advice about relationships."

"Sometimes," said Monica meaningfully. "Sometimes he takes Joey's."

"He ought to know better than to take anything Joey says seriously, whether it's to do with sex or not," Rachel commented rather severely.

"Hey!" cried Phoebe indignantly. "There's a lot to be said for Joey Tribbiani."

"Maybe," said Rachel. "He can be a good friend, but I wouldn't trust him to give good advice about _anything_," her lips twitched, "except maybe sandwiches. And now I really must get going."

When she was gone, Phoebe said, "I hope Rachel's not gonna turn into some ball-busting executive type. I liked her better the way she was."

"Pheebs, the way she was depended a whole lot on her relationship with Ross," Monica pointed out. "Without that, and with the job she now has, she's bound to seem different."

"Well, we ought to get her into another relationship fast, then," said Phoebe. "So, any catering stuff we need to deal with?"

Grateful to turn to a non-controversial topic, Monica settled into discussing details of their business. It was doing okay, but she was well aware that she was not making as good an income from it as she would have had if she was running Pete's restaurant. Nor was it stretching her, the way Rachel's job seemed to be doing. She could console herself with the fact that she was in a relationship, while Rachel wasn't. But to her alarm Pete had seemed a bit distant recently. He swore he wasn't sulking because she refused his offer of the chef's job in his restaurant, but there was evidently something on his mind, which he would not reveal. She dared not asked him if it was about their relationship.

--

That evening, to general surprise, Rachel showed up in Central Perk before Ross and Chloe appeared. She was looking excited.

"You do remember, Ross and Chloe are coming?" Monica said.

"Oh, sure," said Rachel easily. "The way I'm feeling now, it's not gonna kill me to see Ross with Chloe, because guess what? Joanna spoke of promoting me to assistant buyer – an _executive_ job!"

There was a hubbub of exclamation and congratulations, but Chandler's comment was restrained, and he was looking slightly dubious.

"Did she suggest this as an alternative to the Junior Miss job?" he asked. "What did you say?"

"Yeah, she made clear she wanted to keep me," said Rachel, "and I said I was definitely interested, because after all I might not get the Junior Miss job. It shows how highly she thinks of me, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, maybe," said Chandler seriously. "But think about it. You could find yourself stuck as her assistant, not able to move on, and doing all the work, I bet. Look, keep me posted on this, okay? I know how these things can go, from what I've heard in my job."

Rachel looked rather touched. "Thanks, Chandler," she said softly. "That's good of you. I, uh, I hope I didn't hurt you with what I said this morning."

He shook his head. "Naaah. But it shows, I'm not entirely wasting my life, doesn't it? I'm picking up on the way things work, learning the moves, all that." He spoke excitedly, in the way he sometimes had, and gestured as if sparring in a gym.

Rachel smiled at him affectionately. "I never meant to say you were _wasting_ your life, exactly, just that you didn't seem to be enjoying it much."

"Well, at least I get paid well for not enjoying my work much," said Chandler in a jokey way. "The future Mrs. Bing will be very pleased to know what I have stashed away." He waggled his eyebrows at Rachel and said, in a parody of a seductive voice, "Interested?"

Rachel laughed happily. "Why, Chandler, this is so sudden!"

Just then Ross and Chloe showed up.

"Hi, Rachel," said Ross in an unnaturally high-pitched voice. He was looking very surprised.

"Hi, Ross," she said cheerfully, then held out her hand to Chloe. "Put it there, Chloe. I want to shake the hand of the woman who cleaned 'em all out, Ross included." She darted a mischievous glance at him.

"Oh, er, sure," said Chloe as she took Rachel's hand, seeming a bit nonplussed. "So you, you heard about that?"

"I sure did," said Rachel. "I heard _all_ about it." She gave Ross a friendly grin. "You do have this problem of sometimes wanting to know more than you maybe should. But," she turned to Chloe again, "he's a great guy, really. I'm glad you were able to work past it, both of you."

Ross sat down, looking rather stunned, only to jump up again when he realised he had not brought Chloe anything to drink. Chloe also sat down, and regarded Rachel warily, clearly unsettled by her surprisingly friendly behaviour.

Rachel gave a little chuckle. "It's okay, Chloe," she said. "I'm not gonna go into a rant or anything. I truly am over it all, and also, I'm feeling good, because things are going well at my job. With any luck, I may get a promotion."

Chloe looked impressed. "Sometimes I wish I was in that kind of job," she said, "and then again, I think I wouldn't like all the hassle."

Chandler nodded violently. "You said it, Chloe."

Rachel laughed and shook her head. "Well, maybe I've adapted. But this is a job I really have an interest in, you know. I've always loved fashion."

"What does your job actually involve?" said Chloe, seeming interested, and before Ross had returned with the coffees they were deep in discussion, which went from the general nature of Rachel's job to current developments in fashion, as she saw them. Quickly Monica was drawn in, and even Phoebe paid attention, though she tried to maintain an air of apartness, as if she was above such trivia as fashion.

Chandler rolled his eyes at Ross. "It was bound to happen. Put two or three women together and they start talking fashion or, if they're married, houses and families."

Ross smiled weakly. "Yeah, but it's good that Rachel and Chloe can get along, isn't it?"

Much later, when Monica and Rachel were tidying the apartment before going to bed, Monica suddenly said, "You were being very nice to Chloe," in an enquiring sort of way.

Rachel smiled at her. "Yeah, I've decided, she's okay," she said. "In other circumstances, we might have made good friends. As it is, I don't think it's gonna bother me, seeing her around with Ross."

"Really?" said Monica sceptically.

"Really," said Rachel emphatically. "Look, how many times am I gonna have to say it? I _don't_ want Ross back. I am over him, completely. Now I've seen him again, I'm sure of it."

"Well, if you say so, I have to believe you," said Monica in a neutral tone. "But you can't tell me you feel nothing at all when you see him. I mean, you must have memories."

"Sure," said Rachel, "but it would take, I don't know, some totally major change in the whole situation to get me feeling anything like the way I used to feel about him. It was kinda nice to see him again, even though we can't be the friends we were, after everything that's been said and done."

"I guess not," said Monica. "Well, anyway, sleep well."

"You too," said Rachel.

--

Monica tried desperately to keep calm as she approached Central Perk. It was a considerable effort, when what she really wanted to do was to scream out her anger or just bust right out crying. The only serious relationship she had had since Richard, and she had to walk away from it. Maybe, in the end, she would have found out some other way that the quality of dogged persistence that Pete had displayed in courting her was the positive side of a capacity for obsession that could blind him to reality. After watching him get comprehensively destroyed in two extremely brief bouts she had decided that the pain of breaking up with him would be more bearable than watching any more of this. It still hurt, badly.

She entered Central Perk. They were all there, including Chloe, and their heads turned towards her. The concern on their faces made it very hard for her to keep control.

"He just won't quit," she announced. She got this out easily enough, but as she went on she began to stammer. "He, he, obviously he cares more about competing in this _damned_ Ultimate Fighting Championship than, than ... our relationship. S-so," she forced it out, "I h-had to ... dump him." She managed not to wail the last words, but it was a near thing.

Rachel got to her first, and enfolded her in a warm embrace. "Come back to the apartment, honey," she said gently. "You can let go there, cry and scream and yell all you want. You've been there for me; now I can be there for you. Would you like Phoebe, too?"

Monica looked over Rachel's shoulder and caught Phoebe's enquiring gaze. Tears welled up in her eyes at the sympathy she saw there, and she nodded.

"See you later, guys," said Phoebe. "Give us some time, okay?"

Arms around Monica, they accompanied her back to the apartment.

--

Monica's relationship with Pete had been much briefer than that with Richard, and her feelings at the end included what she saw as justifiable anger at him, as well as grief, so she was able to recover relatively fast. It also helped that her catering business was giving her plenty of work. But she still needed support from time to time, most of which Rachel supplied, and so it came about that Rachel realised one day that the deadline for applications for the Junior Miss job was only two days away, and she had done nothing about it. That evening she told Chandler and asked what she should do.

"Joanna's said nothing more about the promotion?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"You must press her," said Chandler firmly. "My guess is, she may try to stall you until the deadline is past, and then she could come up with some excuse for why the promotion can't go through, probably blaming the high-ups. That way, she gets to keep you without it costing anything. Tell her you're sending in your application for the Junior Miss job unless she can make you a definite offer; it would be even better if she can come up with official paperwork."

Rachel nodded, looking resolute. "I'll do it."

Joanna proved evasive when asked how things were going on the assistant buyer job.

"You must understand, these things take a while to set up," she said rather dismissively.

"But it's been a while since you mentioned it," Rachel pointed out in as polite a tone as possible. "If it's all up in the air still, then I think my best option must be to apply for the Junior Miss job, which will certainly be appointed."

"You may not get it," Joanna pointed out.

"No," said Rachel, "but at least I'll know that I tried, and I think the experience will be good for me. So, unless you can give me some guarantee that the job you spoke of _will_ be created for me," – she paused, to give Joanna the chance to interrupt, but she said nothing, simply looking at her coolly – "I firmly intend to send in my application," she continued, feeling it sounded lame, but the best she could do.

"Oh, go ahead and apply then, if you must," Joanna snapped. Then her manner changed, and she smiled at Rachel. "Actually I'm on the hiring committee, so there'll be at least one friendly face."

There was a time when Rachel might have taken that smile at face value, but she knew better now. She could detect no real warmth in it; in fact, it prompted a vague memory of a rhyme about "a smile on the face of the tiger". But she smiled back and said that she was grateful to Joanna for her support.

Thinking about it later, she began to feel more and more uneasy. Would Joanna try to sabotage her? That evening, in Central Perk, she aired her suspicions to Chandler.

He nodded, looking serious. "Yes, that sounds quite possible. Well, all you can do is make the best showing you can at the interview, and watch out for any rough stuff on her part."

On the morning of the day set for the interviews, Rachel dressed with extreme care and went to Bloomingdale's feeling nervous and tense. Walking into the office, she saw Mrs. Lynch, another of the interviewers, to her surprise.

Hearing her come in, Mrs. Lynch turned; she was looking very down in the mouth. "Ah, Rachel," she said. "I have very bad news, I am afraid. Last night just after Joanna had left work she was hit by a cab – fatally."

Totally taken aback, Rachel blurted out, "Oh my God! Oh, I cannot believe it!"

"I know," said Mrs. Lynch unhappily. "Imagine, if she had just stepped off that curb a few seconds later ... Well, I understand that you have become very familiar with the work of this department, Rachel. Between you and Sophie, you should be able to carry on until a replacement for Joanna is appointed, which will be soon."

"Er, what happens to the interviews for the Junior Miss job?" Rachel asked.

"Oh yes, you have applied for that, haven't you?" said Mrs. Lynch. "Well, naturally they will be postponed until a new third interviewer can be chosen, but that should only take a few days. You will be kept informed. Now, I must be getting on, there is such a lot to do. Contact me if you have any urgent problems."

She hurried away, carrying a box that apparently contained items from Joanna's office, which was open. Then Sophie walked in, looking very cheerful.

"Good morning," she carolled.

"Oh, Sophie, I guess you didn't hear about Joanna," Rachel began uneasily.

Sophie interrupted her. "I sure did!" she said, grinning broadly.

Rachel was rather shocked at her display of pleasure at Joanna's passing, but she realised that Sophie might have come to resent Joanna's bullying and contemptuous attitude to her so much that she saw this as a deserved comeuppance. It still seemed a bit extreme for what had been fairly low-level stuff. She herself felt guilty for experiencing considerable relief. She had by then convinced herself that Joanna would attempt to make the interview difficult for her. Now she need have no fear of that; she would be judged on her merits.

--

"They offered me the job!" Rachel screamed, rushing into Central Perk and leaning down to hug Chandler, who was the only one there. "I did everything you told me. I was sorry and respectful about Joanna, but I did not get over-emotional, I gave the impression that I was able to handle it and keep Joanna's department going. And they liked that, but what really swung it was the resumé – all that work I've put in has finally paid off. Oh Chandler, I'm so thrilled, and I owe you a lot for all the help and coaching you've given me!" She gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek.

Chandler looked very pleased, if also a bit embarrassed. "Well, well, that really is great news," he said. "I'm glad someone's making real progress in their career. I just seem to have been promoted to being my boss's favourite spanking target."

Rachel threw herself into a chair opposite him, bright-eyed and beaming. "Well, I don't know if you could accuse him of sexual harassment, but I have to say, it's pretty weird behaviour. You should do something about it, Chandler. No boss should be allowed to pull stuff like that."

Chandler pulled a face. "Yes, well ..." His expression brightened, as if he had thought of something. "Hey, wouldn't you like to celebrate your new job?"

"Oh yeah!" said Rachel. "When the rest of the guys get here, we must all go off and have drinks somewhere really nice like the Plaza."

"Actually," said Chandler, beginning to look a little flushed, "I was thinking of ... just you and me."

"Oh." Rachel looked at him narrowly. "Chandler Bing, are you asking me out on a date?"

He looked even more embarrassed. "Well, well, yes, actually. When two people go out together, I believe that's generally called a date," he babbled.

She sighed and looked at him sympathetically. "Chandler, you're such a great friend and I love you, but I'm sorry, I really am – I can't _date_ you. Why, to me you're like the brother I never had."

Chandler looked downcast, even a little sullen. "You dated Ross," he muttered.

"But don't you see, that's _different_," she said emphatically. "I've known Ross most of my life, and he was always Monica's brother – her geeky brother – until I came to New York. And we did break up, which is maybe a sign that dating within the group just doesn't work."

Chandler sighed deeply. "I guess you're right."

Rachel reached over and patted his hand. "I'm flattered, really," she said. "You've seen me at my worst, but still you want to date me. But I don't think it would work, honey. Let's just stay good friends. But I promise I'll put some real effort into finding possible dates for you. Now I have this new job, I feel so full of energy and, and, well, good will!"

Chandler smiled. "If you can find me some good prospects for dates, that will be an acceptable alternative."

A while later, Rachel was sitting with them all in the Plaza, including Chloe; she had arrived at Central Perk with Ross, and there seemed no polite way to exclude her. Like all of them, Ross had congratulated her sincerely, indeed effusively, and she felt that she was now ready, if not to forget, at least to forgive, more or less. In a way, it could even be considered a good thing that she was no longer dating him, because getting on top of the Junior Miss job would probably involve a good deal of working late at the office.

She was happy to see that Monica was in really good spirits, joining in the conversation animatedly. She and Phoebe now had quite a full calendar of contract work in the coming months, as she proudly declared, and although she had not found anyone new to date this did not appear to be bothering her. Ross, however, was clearly a little concerned about this, and he kept trying to break into Monica's conversation with Chandler and Joey to draw her attention to someone that he wanted to set her up with, presumably one of his colleagues at the Museum. But Monica showed little interest, and he finally gave up, saying to Rachel and Chloe in an aggrieved tone, "She just won't take me seriously."

"I don't think she's in the mood to discuss dating," said Rachel diplomatically.

"Yeah, and anyway, she may not want to talk about with you, because you're her brother," Chloe pointed out. "Were you going to suggest one of your geek colleagues at the Museum?"

"He's not a geek," said Ross, seeming offended. "Arnold is not just a great authority in his field, he's a great guy."

"And yet he's not got anyone," said Chloe, sounding sceptical. "So what's the problem?"

"Well," said Ross, and stopped, looking thoughtful. After a few moments, he continued, "I guess he does like to spend a lot of his free time playing computer games, and he does talk about them rather a lot."

"What did I say?" said Chloe triumphantly. "A total geek!"

Rachel detected a flash of irritation on Ross's face for just a moment, before he gave a rather forced laugh and nodded, saying, "Okay, you win."

It occurred to Rachel that the relationship between Ross and Chloe had altered just a little from what Monica had described to her. Chloe seemed less deferential and more ready to argue with him than she had been originally. She wondered if this might be a legacy of the poker game, and decided to pay more attention to the interaction between them. In the days that followed, she did notice once or twice, at meetings in Central Perk, that when Ross was fussing about something, or promising to be boring in the way he sometimes did, Chloe would often be the first to try to tease him out of it, even ahead of Chandler, and might bluntly suggest that he knock it off. Ross did not openly object to this, but it was plain to her that he did not care for it all that much. Rachel wondered if she should warn Chloe, but on further consideration she thought this might seem suspect, coming from her. She did mention it to Monica one time.

Monica sighed. "Yes, she's certainly got over being in total awe of him," she said. "But I don't think we ought to say anything to her. Let them work it out."


	10. At the Beach and After

Chapter 10: At the Beach and After

Chapter 10: At the Beach and After

Author's Note: I have to confess to committing a significant error in the last chapter, drawn to my attention by Cress's review, in referring to Kathy as a past girlfriend of Chandler's. In the show she doesn't appear until well into Season 4. Not wishing to diverge from the show's sequence of events to this extent, I have altered the text to drop the reference.

Okay, this is a long chapter, but we are definitely getting near the end, as you will see (I hope). Thanks are due to Cress for incisive comments on an earlier draft, but she has not seen this one, so could not have caught any further errors committed in American idiom internal coherence, or general dramatic plausibility.

As regular readers will realise, this version of the beach house visit takes place at a different relative time in the sequence, which is now well into the chronological equivalent of Season 4 (the show episodes concerning the beach house visit were 3,25 and 4,1, from which a few elements of dialogue are drawn).

Chandler's original date with Danielle, referred to below, is a major plot strand in episode 1,20.

--

"... So maybe this weekend we could go to the beach?" Phoebe said, finishing her excited account of how she had discovered that a Phoebe Abbott had been a great friend of her parents and might be able to tell her how to find her father. This woman lived at Montauk, where one of Phoebe's massage clients owned a beach house that he was willing to lend her, so that she could meet her.

"Yeah, yeah, we can!" cried Monica, Joey and Chandler enthusiastically.

"Hey, great idea! Can Chloe come?" Ross asked. Plainly he was uncertain how far Phoebe had accepted Chloe.

Phoebe looked thoughtful for just a moment, then shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

"Oh, _great!_" Chloe cried, jumping up and down. "Oh Ross, thanks for thinking of that." She threw her arms round him and hugged him vigorously, her face very close to his.

Ross leaned forward and stole a quick kiss. "I'm thinking of you in a bikini," he said playfully.

"Mmmm." Chloe hugged him even harder, her face pressed against his.

"Uh, Rachel?" said Phoebe uncertainly. "You haven't said anything."

"I can't make it," said Rachel, sounding rather embarrassed.

"You're not coming to the beach?" said Monica, Joey and Phoebe incredulously. Chandler said nothing, just nodded and looked sympathetically at Rachel.

"Uh, no," said Rachel, looking at them uneasily. She tried to catch Monica's eye in particular and nodded her head at Ross and Chloe, who were gazing deep into each other's eyes and evidently murmuring loving sentiments.

"Ohhh," said Monica, understanding, and muttered in Joey's ear, then Phoebe's. They nodded, and then Joey muttered in Chandler's.

"I already worked it out, dummy," said Chandler exasperatedly. "But, but what will you do, Rachel?"

"Enjoy the peace and quiet, when you guys aren't around," said Rachel teasingly.

"Hey, Rach, could you look after the chick and the duck?" said Joey eagerly. "We need to find someone to do that," he said to Chandler. "We haven't left them alone before." He looked at Rachel in appeal. "Please?"

"Okay," said Rachel in a tone of resignation. "But you'll have to tell me everything to do."

"Thanks, Rachel, that's good of you," said Chandler, giving her a smile without a hint of mockery.

"I know it is," she said, smiling back. "Don't worry, I'll come up with some favour you guys can do for me some time."

She walked off before anyone could think of any further comment to make.

"Well, in a way that's not a bad thing," said Phoebe reflectively. "I can fit six in the cab, but seven?"

"What's this, Pheebs?" said Ross. "Who's not coming?"

"Rachel," said Phoebe, fixing him with a meaningful look.

After a pause, he looked a little discomfited and said "Oh."

"Rachel's not coming? That's a shame," said Chloe, apparently oblivious to the undercurrents. "I was hoping we could have a real knock-out poker game with Ross and anyone else who cares to join in, and see who really is top gun."

"You'll have to host a game and invite her," said Monica a little abruptly. "Right, arrangements: when and where shall we meet?"

Having established this, she hurried after Rachel and caught up with her on the last flight of stairs before the apartment.

"You keep saying, you're over Ross," she said.

"Yeah," said Rachel rather gloomily. "But I realised, when she started getting all lovey-dovey with him, I couldn't stand a whole weekend of seeing that, when I can't get away or anything. It brings back all the memories. Probably it's because I've got no one of my own to distract me." Then she seemed to cheer up, and turned to smile at Monica. "Don't worry about me, Mon. I'll be fine. Don't you ever feel that just once in a while you'd like to be on your own and not have the gang constantly busting in?"

"H'm." Monica looked thoughtful. "I see your point. Yeah, once or twice ... Anyway, I can tell you _all_ about it when we get back."

Rachel grinned. "You do that."

--

When they returned, Rachel noticed at once that things were not well. Chloe was not there and none of the others seemed willing to talk about the weekend. In fact, they were all behaving strangely, not talking or interacting easily at all. Finally, she broke one of the silences that kept falling.

"All right, that's it, you guys! What happened?" she said a little sharply. "Something's making you guys all quiet, and it's freaking me out."

"Um, quite a lot of things happened," said Monica, not meeting anyone's eye.

"Yeah!" said Phoebe emphatically. "You and Chandler and Joey went off, and then you came back all weird, but you wouldn't say why. But that wasn't the only problem." She glanced meaningfully at Ross.

"No, it wasn't," said Ross, returning an equally significant glance. "But you're right, those three _were_ acting weird. So tell us what happened, you guys."

Slowly and reluctantly their friends told the story of how Monica had been stung by a jellyfish, how Joey remembered something he'd seen on the Discovery Channel about urine neutralising the effect of a jellyfish sting – Ross tried to interpose a scientific explanation here, but waas cut off before he got very far – and how eventually it had fallen to Chandler to pee on Monica's leg, which had indeed had the desired effect.

Once the secret was out, suddenly everyone was a lot easier, and a certain amount of bantering followed, deriving from Monica's extreme fastidiousness and, another feature of the weekend as it transpired, Chandler's repeated attempts to get her to admit that he was boyfriend material. Ross got the best laugh by suggesting that Chandler was trying to mark his territory. But after a while first he and then Phoebe left, and Chandler and Joey went to play foosball, leaving Rachel and Monica alone.

Rachel could see that Monica was still a bit uneasy, and said soothingly, "It's okay, Mon, I'm not disgusted at you. Don't they say, desperate times require desperate remedies? I remember, I got stung once, when we were all out on our yacht. It hurt like a son of a bitch. But daddy slapped some vinegar on and the pain went away."

Monica smiled at her, seeming to relax. "Yeah, well, it's not like I was going to have any vinegar out on the beach. So, how did you manage, with the chick and the duck?"

Rachel pulled a face. "They need a lot of cleaning up after, don't they? But it wasn't too bad, though they did seem to miss Joey and Chandler. But before we talk more about what I did, what else happened on the weekend? What was with Phoebe? She seemed quieter than normal, like she was thinking about something. And I got the idea Ross was sort of mad about something."

Monica gave a small sigh and nodded. "Yeah, what happened with them was much more important than my being stung by a jellyfish. Phoebe first, then. She found out, this Phoebe Abbott was actually her birth mother, and had given her to Frank, who was the father, and Lily, and run off. So Phoebe has a mother again, but not one she wants, and she's no closer to finding her father, because Phoebe Abbott doesn't know where he is. And Phoebe took it all really hard."

"Wow, that sucks," said Rachel with feeling. "D'you think it'll be okay, if I tell her I'm sorry to hear it?"

"Oh, I think so," said Monica. "This is one time she wants support."

"I'll do that next chance I get," said Rachel. "And what about Ross? Did he and Chloe have some kind of falling out? She wasn't with you guys when you came in."

Monica heaved a bigger sigh. "Falling out, yeah. See, when we got to the beach house it was raining hard, and once we were inside we discovered that the beach had got there first – there was sand _everywhere_. That was kind of a downer, but we got ourselves sorted out, and I made some sangria. But still, there was nothing to do, because it was still raining, and we were bored, all except Phoebe who went off to call on Phoebe Abbott. Joey got all excited about this idea that we should play strip poker, but we all said no, though you could see Chloe was interested, maybe because she's ready to play any kind of poker. When Phoebe returned we were still arguing, so she shut her eyes and picked at random, and nominated Chandler to choose a game that we all agreed we _had_ to play – and the idiot could only think of strip poker!"

Rachel giggled. "Yeah, so ... any exciting revelations?"

Monica shook her head at her. "It gets more complicated. As it turned out, there were no cards in the house, and Chloe hadn't brought hers because she didn't think she'd get a game. But Joey did turn up a Happy Days Game, so we played that, with the extra rule that if you got five Cool Points you got to make somebody take off something."

"And so?" Rachel was now looking really interested.

"So, most of us took dead aim at Joey," Monica continued, grinning, "and we got him down to his boxers. But he also got chances, and he aimed at me and Chloe, but not Phoebe, because she was trying to help him by going for one of us too. And Chandler joined in against me at one point, so I wound up bare-legged. As for Chloe – well, she wasn't wearing very much to start with, just this skimpy top that showed her belly-button ring, and very short pants, and tie-on sandals. From something Joey said, I guess it was what she was wearing the night she and Ross ... got together.1" She looked a little nervously at Rachel.

Rachel's face didn't change. "Yeah, yeah, go on," she said rather impatiently.

"Well," said Monica, "Ross seemed rather uptight about her starting the game dressed like this, and he even suggested she should go put more on. But she just grinned at him, and said, 'What makes you think I'm gonna lose?' and then he said, 'Chloe' in a kind of stern manner, like he wanted her to obey him, and she said, 'No, Ross' quite firmly. So he shut up, but he didn't look at all happy. He eased off, though, when we all started going for Joey. But when Chloe lost her second sandal, he began to get uneasy again, though he didn't say anything at the time ...

--

"Five Cool Points," cried Phoebe triumphantly. "Ooh – who shall I go for?" She cast an evil look around the table.

"Joey!" Monica said, giggling. She was hoping she would finally get her revenge on Joey for walking in on her in the shower, when he thought he was going to see Rachel naked.

"Yeah, Joey!" cried Chloe, who seemed to be enjoying the game a lot.

"Yes, we should allow our proud sponsor to be first to achieve total nakedness," said Chandler.

"Gimme a break, Pheebs!" Joey protested. "Pick Chloe!"

"Yes, I think that's what I'll do," said Phoebe, grinning, and pointed at Chloe. "Take it off!"

Ross looked agitated. "Hey, hey, this has gone far enough!" he protested. "We don't _really_ want to see each other naked, do we?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I sure do, the girls anyway," said Joey. "It might warm me up," he added with a lascivious grin.

"You don't have to do this, Chloe," said Ross, turning to her.

"Ross, it's not gonna bother me," said Chloe calmly. She was already unbuttoning her top. "What's the problem? We all agreed to play this game."

She finished unbuttoning and held the top together, looking around.

"Everyone ready for the big show?" she said mischievously.

Ross cried, "No, Chloe, don't!" in an anguished voice.

"Ross, for god's sake lighten up!" she snapped, and threw off her top, to reveal that she was not wearing a bra.

"Oh yeeeaaahh!" said Joey appreciatively.

--

Rachel burst out laughing. "Wow, that Chloe! So what did Ross do then?"

"He stormed out, looking so mad," said Monica dramatically. "And then we all felt a bit uneasy and embarrassed. Joey said he was getting cold, and maybe we should stop, and I was ready to agree because my legs were certainly cold. So we mostly put our clothes back on, though Joey still went bare above the waist, like he wanted us all to admire his torso. But Chloe seemed rather mad that Ross had made such a big deal out of it, and she didn't go after him. Later I saw her smiling a little to herself, though I don't know why – "

"I can guess," Rachel broke in. "She had shown Ross that she was her own woman and would do what _she_ wanted. It's so easy to have a problem with him if he doesn't get his own way." She spoke with a certain intensity.

For a moment their eyes met, in perfect sympathy.

"And maybe she was wanting to show herself off, too," said Rachel more lightly. "So how did she look, compared with me?" She sounded casual, but Monica thought she really wanted to know.

Monica grinned. "Not as good as you – she's kinda small there – but not too bad, I guess."

Rachel gave a little smirk, but said nothing.

All along, Monica had been nursing the hope that Rachel was not as over Ross as she claimed and some day would get back together with him, and since nothing would please her better she had a sudden wild thought that this smirk might be a sign that Rachel was beginning to contemplate the possibility.

"Well, after that she moved out of the room they'd been sharing," she continued, keeping close watch on Rachel's reactions. "I made up a bed for her on the couch. And they didn't talk to each other, that I saw, and when we were coming home she wouldn't sit next to him, and as far as I know they still haven't made up."

She looked hopefully at Rachel, but her voice suggested no more than passing interest when she said, "So, do you think they've really broken up?"

"Hard to say," Monica said. "It was more like a bad fight, worse than the one at the poker game, but something they could get over, with a bit of give and take."

"Chloe's really quite tough, isn't she?" said Rachel reflectively. "At first I thought she sounded like she would let Ross walk all over her."

"Well, you didn't always do what Ross wanted, either," Monica pointed out.

"No," said Rachel quietly, "I didn't. Perhaps that was at the root of it all."

Her tone led Monica to the inescapable conclusion that as far as Rachel was concerned Ross was definitely in her past and staying there. She mentally sighed with regret, and changed the subject.

"So, I'll bet you hit the shops while we were gone."

"Yeah," said Rachel, suddenly enthusiastic. "I bought this great new sundress. Come see."

Monica duly went and admired it, but she could not help thinking that what Rachel needed was not new clothes, but someone to wear them for.

Rachel gave her a knowing look. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can guess what you're thinking. Well, I'll say this. I'm actually ready to start looking around now. One problem is, there aren't all that many cute straight guys in Bloomingdale's – "

"Well, what about Mark?" Monica interrupted. "Time's gone by, and he was definitely interested in you."

Rachel reacted violently. "No no no, absolutely not, no way. Too many reminders of things I want to put behind me. Anyway, I was going to say, another problem is that I don't want to look like a loser and go hang out in singles bars."

"Maybe we could go out together," Monica offered.

Rachel smiled. "Sure, why not? We could ask Pheebs if she wants to come too."

--

Everyone expected that Ross would call Chloe, as he had done after the poker game, and they would make up, but it did not happen. Monica recognised that Ross had gotten into one of his obstinate moods, when he felt he had to take a stand on what he regarded as a point of principle. In the end it was Chloe whose resolution cracked first; after two days she called him, as Ross told Monica with more than a hint of self-satisfaction. She was apologetic, and they agreed to make up, but after that, although they dated as much as before, Monica felt that they did not seem as close as they had been. She was not the only one to notice that they occasionally made sniping comments at each other and that their disagreements were more frequent and liable to turn into small fights, which could involve quite bitter exchanges. Their fights never seemed to get very far before they dropped them, seeming almost embarrassed, but to Monica they were a worrying symptom of a relationship in trouble.

Then one day Ross came to find Monica in Central Perk at lunchtime, just as she was deciding that no one else was going to show up; even Joey had work that day. He was looking quite excited.

"Guess who came to see me in the Museum today," he said eagerly.

"Not Chloe – you wouldn't be so excited," said Monica slowly, trying to think.

Ross made an impatient gesture. "No, not Chloe; she's never come back to the Museum after the first time. No, this is someone from my past, who I never really expected to want to see me again."

Monica thought she had the answer. "Not Julie?" she said in surprise.

Ross nodded, grinning all over his face. "It was so great! She said, she'd heard about the break-up with Rachel, and was sorry to hear it, and how was I doing, and so forth. You know, I have felt kinda guilty about the way I dumped her, but she said she had gotten over that completely. In fact, she was being really nice – "

An awful suspicion was growing in Monica's mind. "Ross!" she snapped. "Have you started something with Julie?"

"Not at all," he said indignantly. "After I told her a bit about what happened, we just talked about our work, developments in our specialities and things like that, and I tell you, Mon, it was such a pleasure. I can tell Chloe about my work, but I can't discuss it with her. She's a lot more polite than Rachel used to be, but I can tell, she's not really very interested, and she just doesn't think very scientifically."

Monica recognised that this urge to talk about his work was one side of Ross that none of them shared, except perhaps Rachel, now that she had really got launched on her career. Chandler wouldn't do it, claiming it was too boring; Joey loved acting but didn't talk about it; Monica's own work was not really something you could talk about much, and neither was Phoebe's massage job. But Ross was always keen to tell them about his theories and his and other people's discoveries, and he could never accept his friends' lack of interest. It had definitely hurt him when he discovered that it bored Rachel rigid. In that respect he and Julie had been an ideal couple, but ...

"Ross," she said earnestly, "did you find out if Julie was dating anybody?"

He looked at her in surprise. "That's not the kind of question you ask someone you used to date, when you've met for the first time in a very long while."

"All right," said Monica. "Did you tell her about Chloe?"

"Um, ah, well, yeah, I did sort of mention her," said Ross, looking a little uneasy, "but I didn't give a detailed account of our, our relationship."

"H'm." Monica looked at her brother measuringly. Did he have no idea what was going on? But maybe she was being too suspicious.

"Did Julie suggest you should meet again?" she said.

"Yes, she did," said Ross. "But why should that matter?"

"Because she may be interested in more than your ideas about dinosaurs," said Monica bluntly, feeling this gave her a basis for her suspicions.

Ross looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't think so. This is just two colleagues discussing professional matters in a friendly way."

Monica held back a snort of derision with great difficulty.

"Ross, you're dating Chloe," she said urgently. "You shouldn't be thinking of having meetings with another woman that you were close to once. You could easily awaken feelings that you had buried."

Ross's face closed. "I can control myself," he said grumpily.

Monica could see she wasn't going to get through. "Well, I hope no one gets hurt, is all," she said.

"I have no intention of hurting anybody," said Ross in a very stiff manner.

Monica grunted sceptically. Ross's intentions were not necessarily the point, she felt.

"Listen, don't tell anyone else, okay?" Ross said, sounding a bit anxious. "From your reaction, I guess the others might take it the wrong way, and Chloe especially. Monica, this is a chance for me to discuss my speciality with someone who cares about it as much as I do, and has a different perspective from the guys in the Museum. I don't want to cut myself off from that, and likely alienate Julie, just because people can't imagine we could be meeting without sex in mind."

Monica wanted to give Ross the benefit of the doubt, so she agreed to keep secret that he had met Julie and they were going to have at least one more meeting, though she felt considerable qualms about it.

Over the next days, Ross went around with an air of suppressed excitement that made it seem very likely to Monica that he was continuing to see Julie, which aroused a considerable sense of foreboding in her. But the others, intent on their own concerns, did not seem to notice anything out of the ordinary about him. In fact, the main focus of general interest, apart from Phoebe's development of a kind of relationship with her birth-mother, was Chandler's second encounter with Danielle, a girl with whom he had enjoyed a tremendous first date over two years before, but for a variety of reasons had failed to follow up on.

"She seemed very pleased to see me," he told them in Central Perk, with an air of triumph. "She was obviously eager for another date, so I promised that I'd call her later today – and I really will," he added, his eye resting on Rachel, with whom this was a sore point after his repeated use of the misleading statement "I'll call you" with Joanna.

Joey gave a rather derisive snicker. "No, don't seem too eager," he said. "Let her dangle a little longer."

"Don't you do any such thing!" said Monica vehemently. "Here you have a chance to make up for your dumb behaviour two years ago. Don't you remember how you called your first date with her one of the greatest of all time?"

"Yeah, don't hold back," said Rachel. "Don't let Love Rat here tell you how to handle it. If you want to have a relationship that isn't with Janice, you've got to go for it. She might decide you're not worth it if you don't make good on calling her when you said you would."

Chandler looked quite impressed. "Okay," he said. "Here goes," and he got up and went to a corner to talk on his cellphone. He came back beaming.

"Dinner tonight," he said. "In fact, I'll have to be off soon to meet her."

Joey shook his head, apparently in doubt that anything would come of it, but he was wrong. The second date led to a third, which led to more, and soon it seemed that Chandler had actually got himself a girlfriend who was not Janice, though he did not bring her into Central Perk, apparently wanting to keep her away from Joey.

Monica and Rachel's own forays in pursuit of dates, sometimes in company with Phoebe, were less successful. They met reasonable prospects and accepted a few offers of dates, but felt no strong attraction to any of them and did not go further. This was frustrating, but since their experience was identical they were able to support and commiserate with each other without any jealousy.

Then the trouble that Monica had been half-anticipating blew up with startling suddenness. She and Rachel were sitting in Central Perk early one evening, waiting for Phoebe, with whom they were intending to go on another foray in search of datable men, when Chloe showed up. It was immediately evident that she had been drinking.

Almost staggering, she approached their table and said, "Where is he? Where's Ross?" fiercely.

"No idea," said Rachel, and while Monica thought she had a good idea where he might be, if he was not with Chloe, she spread her hands to show ignorance

Chloe's eyes focused on Rachel and narrowed as she took in her finery. "I bet you do have an idea," she said angrily. "Waiting for him, aren't you? All forgiven an' forgotten, eh?" There was real bitterness in her tone.

Before Monica could intervene, Rachel said, in a bewildered way, "Chloe, what _are_ you talking about? I'm _not_ waiting for Ross. Monica and I are waiting for Phoebe, so we can all go out together."

Chloe turned her eyes on Monica, who nodded vigorously.

Then Chloe put her hands to her head. "Ooh, I feel dizzy," she complained.

"You'd better sit down," said Monica, "and drink some strong black coffee. Shall I get you one?"

"Yes please," said Chloe, almost falling into a chair. She leaned back and closed her eyes, then opened them again and fastened her glance on Rachel.

"If he's not seeing _you_," she said loudly, "who is he seeing? Because I'm sure he's sheeing, seeing _someone_. Three times now I've suggested a date an' he's come up with some excuse, an' I'm sick of it!" She banged her fist on the chair arm for emphasis.

"Cool it, Chloe," said Rachel in alarm. "You don't want to get thrown out, do you?"

"Wouldn't care," said Chloe petulantly, then, in a serious way, "Look, Rachel, I know we're not real buddy-buddy, but, if you know anything, for god's sake tell me!"

"Chloe, I really don't know anything," said Rachel with maximum sincerity. "I know about your fight, but I thought you'd made up again."

"It's not been the same since," said Chloe sorrowfully. "I could see that, but I shut it out, like we all do." She lay back in her chair and closed her eyes again.

"Here's your coffee," said Monica, who had heard most of this because Chloe had been speaking loudly and a lot of people in Central Perk seemed to have stopped talking to listen.

"Monica," said Rachel, fixing her with a serious look, "do you know if Ross is seeing someone else? Because if so, I think Chloe should be told."

She sounded quite serious, and when Chloe looked at her pleadingly over the cup rim as she took a drink Monica felt that she did not deserve to be kept in the dark.

"I know one thing," she said. "He's met Julie again. He told me, she came to see him in the Museum recently and, the way he's been acting, I think they've kept meeting."

"Who's Julie?" said Chloe in bewilderment, while Rachel's eyes widened and she nodded hard, as if to say, I see it all now.

"Hasn't he told you about Julie?" Rachel said to Chloe in quite a sympathetic voice. "The girl he'd known in graduate school that he came back from China with, another dinosaur freak? The girl he dumped when he thought he was getting together with me, only that dumb list thing got in the way?"

"Oh yeah," said Chloe slowly. "I remember now; he has mentioned her." She gave a raucous laugh. "Well, hang in there, Rachel. Maybe he'll get round to you again, in time."

"I don't want him," said Rachel shortly.

Chloe looked at her in surprise. "You don't?"

Rachel shook her head. "Really, really not."

Chloe looked rather abashed. "Sorry."

"It's okay," said Rachel more easily. "You can be forgiven. You've had a nasty shock."

Chloe did indeed look rather shell-shocked. But then her face hardened.

"He might have had the decency to break up with me first, the rat."

Rachel nodded as if she agreed. Anxious that this should not become assumed without question, Monica said, "Look, we don't know that he's _dating_ Julie. The way he spoke, he was just discussing his work with her."

Rachel looked thoughtful. "When he couldn't decide between Julie and me, he didn't actually try to go out with me behind her back. I wonder ..." She turned to Chloe. "Why don't you call him and see what he says?"

Chloe looked suddenly nervous. "I, I'm not sure – "

"C'mon," said Rachel encouragingly. "Where's the girl who faced him down at poker?"

Chloe's expression changed to determination. "Okay," she said, "but could I borrow a cell? I don't have one."

Rachel opened her purse and handed one over immediately. Chloe tried to get up, fell back into the chair, and shook her head with a rueful look.

"Drunk too much," she said. "Er, d'you mind trying not to listen?"

"Okay," said Rachel, and moved to sit on the couch next to Monica.

"What are you _doing_?" Monica hissed in amazement.

"Lending Chloe my cell," Rachel replied with an obviously fake air of innocence.

Monica made an impatient gesture. "You're totally making it easy for Chloe to put Ross on the spot."

Rachel grinned. "Yeah, I am, aren't I? Well, Monica, seriously – if Ross _is_ seeing Julie behind Chloe's back, do you think that's behaving well? Because I don't. Anyway, we'll know soon enough."

Chloe's voice rose, making it impossible not to hear her. "It's a perfectly simple question, Ross. Are you seeing someone else ... like this Julie person, f'r instance?" She listened for a moment, then looked at Monica. "He wants to speak to you."

Monica reached automatically for the phone, then paused. "Tell him to answer your question first," she said firmly.

"That's _right_!" said Rachel, clapping her hands together.

"Monica says to answer my question first," Chloe said, "an' Rachel seems to think that's a good idea, too ... What d'you mean, are we ganging up on you? Ross, will you answer the sonofabitching _question_?" She listened, and her face went sad. "Uh-huh, that's like what I heard ... Ross, I don't care if you're getting together to talk dinosaurs or, or Deep Purple, it's obvious that you're more interested in her, if you'll meet her but turn down dates with me. So that's it, I'm making your decision for you. We're through." She jabbed viciously at the button to cut the connection, then looked guiltily at Monica. "Sorry, he wanted to speak to you."

"Well, I don't want to speak to him," said Monica sharply. "He's bound to be wanting to ream me out for telling you about Julie. So, he said it to you too, these are just innocent meetings to talk about his work, did he?"

"Yeah!" said Chloe resentfully. "Innocent meetings my ass!"

"She wants him back, I bet," said Rachel. "Mon, did Ross say anything about how it was Julie came to visit him?"

Monica concentrated, and remembered. "Yeah, his story was, she had heard about his break-up with you and came to ask how he was doing, if he was okay, all that."

Chloe snorted. "How sweet!" she said bitterly. "I think you're right, Rachel. _He_ may think they're innocent meetings, but I bet Julie has different ideas. I wonder what else they talk about, if she got him sounding off about our problems, for instance – "

They were interrupted by Phoebe's arrival. "Hi guys! Hi Chloe!" she said breezily. "Why's everyone looking so serious?"

"Ross has been meeting Julie again, without telling Chloe," said Rachel. "She showed up in the Museum, asking how he was doing, after our break-up. Chloe's found out, and she's told him, they're through."

Phoebe frowned. "Huh!" Then she turned to Chloe, who was looking glum, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Chloe, but it comes of your bad karma. You got Ross the wrong way – so you lose him."

"I didn't know he was with Rachel, exactly," said Chloe defensively.

"But you should have guessed he was with someone, and all stressed out over what was happening in the relationship," Phoebe replied rather severely.

"Yeah," said Chloe in a small voice. "I'm really, really sorry about that, Rachel."

"That's okay, Chloe," said Rachel easily. "It's nice to get an apology from one of you, at least. And you know what? I've come to think, if it wasn't that, it would have been something else." She eyed Chloe speculatively. "Hey, d'you wanna go somewhere we can dump on Ross together, to remind you of all the things you didn't like about him? It might make you feel better." She looked at Monica and Phoebe. "You'll be okay with just the two of you, won't you?"

Monica found herself feeling some sympathy with Chloe. "Why don't Phoebe and I come along?" she said. "I can tell you all kinds of stuff from when we were growing up together."

"It's a nice idea," said Rachel, "but I think we may want to talk about things that no sister should hear about her brother, right, Chloe?"

"Oh wow, you'd really do this?" said Chloe, looking at her in awe.

"I think it will complete the healing process, for me," said Rachel. "And, okay, you're not so bad, Chloe." She grinned at her in a reasonably friendly way. "Perhaps you can give me some tips about poker."

"Well, if you don't mind hearing me sound off ..." said Chloe. "But maybe I should have some more coffee first." She scrabbled at her purse. "Let me pay for it this time, and anything anyone else wants."

"You stay put," said Monica. "I'll have Gunther run a tab."

Phoebe settled back in her chair. "Hey, did I ever tell the story of how Ross and I nearly did it, when Carol had just told him about her being gay, and I felt so sorry for him? It's kinda funny ..."

1 Actually, either Joey misremembered (he's not likely to have a good memory for clothes) or Monica misunderstood him. The top Chloe wears at the party (in 3,15 in the show) has no buttons, and what is on her lower half looks more like a micro-skirt. We can assume that the effect of what she wears at the beach is much the same.


	11. The Return of Julie

Epilogue

Chapter 11: The Return of Julie

Author's Note: Apologies to any who have been waiting with increasing impatience for this update. An early and incomplete draft was justly shot down in flames by Cress, which caused me to have a considerable rethink, and I have finally accepted that I am not going to get it all into one final chapter, unless it is of inordinate length.

Thanks to tini243 and Cress for suggestions that I have acted on.

To explain Monica's comment about sautéing below: it seems clear that, to judge from her account of being promoted at Iridium in episode 2,5, Monica had already reached the position of sauté chef (which Wikipedia informs me is the top position under the chef and sous chef).

--

"An' the dinosaurs," said Rachel, slurring a little. "Oh man, those bleeping dinosaurs!"

"Expletive-deleted dinosaurs," said Chloe, grinning into her glass. "But, hey, weren't you fascinated by dinosaurs as a kid? I was."

"No, they didn't do a thing for me," said Rachel after thinking for a moment. "An' Chloe, you gotta admit, he wasn't just into them, the way men can be into their work. He was crazy about them." She took another swig of her drink. "I sometimes think, his perfect date woulda been a dinosaur."

Chloe expelled some of her drink back through her nose into the glass and went into helpless giggles, intermingled with snorting noises. "Don't_ say_ things like that when I'm taking a drink," she cried when she'd recovered a bit. "But he couldn't date a dinosaur, anyway – they're all dead."

"Well, a bird, then," said Rachel, pleased with the effect of her little joke. "He was telling me once, birds were the living descendants of dinosaurs." She made a rude noise with tongue and lips. "Big bleeping deal."

"I used to like the way he got so enthusiastic," said Chloe rather wistfully. "But before long I realised, I had to set limits on dinosaur talk, or we'd have it all day."

Rachel grinned again. "Yeah, I felt like that once, too. Chandler told me how you seemed to be keeping Ross in line on that." She snickered. "An' I heard how you stood up for yourself, over playing that Strip Happy Days game the way you'd all agreed to play it. I gotta say, that sort of impressed me, Chloe."

"Thanks," said Chloe, but her expression had clouded. "I don't know why he had to be so expletive-deleted uptight about it," she burst out.

"He did, does have this tendency, to get uptight about things that shouldn't matter so much," said Rachel slowly, as she tried to think coherently. "An' he can be _so_ possessive! That's what was going on there, I bet: he just didn't want Chandler an' Joey seeing your boobs."

Chloe snorted. "Well, I guessed _that_. But," her voice suddenly turned serious, "I can see why he might be possessive about you – the two of you were really in love. We liked each other a lot, sure, but we weren't there." She shook her head, suddenly looking rather sad.

"Yeah," said Rachel, feeling a sudden strong sense of loss. When was she going to be there again? She sighed deeply.

Chloe looked at her sympathetically. "Still missing him?"

Rachel gave Chloe a rueful smile. "Not missing _him_, no. Missing the feeling I had with him."

"I know what you mean," said Chloe, sighing also. Then she sat up straight, with a determined look. "This won't do," she said. "We'll end up crying in our booze. So, what's your favourite movie?"

Rachel grinned, grateful for the change of subject. "I like to tell people it's Dangerous Liaisons, but actually," her voice dropped to a conspiratorial tone, "it's Weekend at Bernie's."

"Oh, cool!" Chloe cried. "I _love_ that movie! And what's your favourite TV show?"

--

"So, how did it go with Chloe?" Monica asked Rachel the following morning when she came out of her bedroom, walking in a gingerly fashion.

"Uuuuhhh!" Rachel groaned, putting a hand to her forehead. "That woman has a capacity for drink that far exceeds mine. She actually saw me home. Where's the aspirin?"

Monica already had the Tylenol bottle ready, and shook out a couple. "Take them with water," she said, "not with your coffee, because it's hot."

"Yes, mom," said Rachel glumly. Monica laughed.

Rachel took the Tylenol to the sink, found a glass and filled it, and chugged them down, while Monica watched her indulgently.

"So, apart from drinking too much, which I guess must have seemed like fun at the time, how did things go?" she said.

Rachel frowned a little as she sat down with exaggerated care and sipped her coffee.

"Pretty well," she said. "We had a good time. We didn't spend all that much time dumping on Ross, actually. After a while we started talking about other things, because we'd somehow got to feeling all sad, which was _not _the point of the exercise." She shook her head, then groaned and clutched it. "Shouldn't have done that," she muttered.

"So, what else did you talk about?" Monica prompted.

"Oh, well, the kind of things we like," Rachel said, "movies, TV shows, clothes, food ... we found, we have quite a lot of things in common. We even talked about poker a little. You know, the way she talked about it made me think, it might be fun to play poker with her some day, just to see how she handles herself. But not with Ross, obviously – in fact, I guess none of you will want to play with her again."

"Right!" said Monica emphatically. "In fact, I don't care if I never play poker again, full stop. And I'd strongly advise you against playing with her, because, one, she'd skin you alive, and two, if Ross got to hear of it he'd be very upset."

"H'm." Rachel's face took on a slightly obstinate look. "You know what I think? Okay, she broke it off, but he was the one doing something wrong. That doesn't put him in a very good position to be expecting people to take his side and keep away from her."

Monica sighed. "Well, okay, he didn't tell Chloe about these meetings with Julie, which he probably should have done, but he was afraid it might be taken the wrong way – just like you are doing – and he persuaded me not to tell anyone else. But, Rachel," – suddenly her tone was very serious, and she was looking at Rachel intently – "you really can't try to be friends with him and her both. He'd take it very badly, and that would put me in a position that I don't want to be in again."

Rachel still looked mutinous for a moment, but then she sighed and nodded. "Yeah, okay, you've been a great support, and I certainly don't want to screw things up for you, now you're more or less reconciled with him." Suddenly she grinned. "You won't be telling him about my little get-together last night with Chloe, then?"

"No way," said Monica, "and I'll try to make sure Phoebe doesn't say anything, either, but it may not be possible to keep it from Joey and Chandler." She frowned. "It's still not clear to me what the situation is between Ross and Julie, but suppose they do start dating again – how are you gonna feel about that?"

Rachel shrugged. "If I can take Ross with Chloe, I ought to be able to take Ross with Julie." After a pause, she added, "But I guess she may not want to see me around much."

"I don't see why you should have to keep out of her way," said Monica, looking at her in surprise. "That was all more than a year ago. But this is all a what-if, anyway; we don't know they're dating or will want to date. All we know is, they've been meeting to talk dinosaurs."

"Oh please!" said Rachel derisively. "I can't believe Julie's in it just for professional reasons, whatever Ross may think. Don't you remember how close they were? It's not gonna take much to start that up again, I bet you, if it hasn't already."

"True enough," said Monica. Then Chandler and Joey arrived.

"Got news for you, guys," Monica said. "Chloe broke it off with Ross last night."

"Oh, why was that?" said Chandler in surprise. "I thought they'd got past the Strip Happy Days difficulty."

Joey did not look so surprised, and said nothing.

"Well, now it can be told," said Monica. "Julie has shown up in Ross's life again. He told me when she first came to see him in the Museum, to see how he was and talk dinosaurs, and that she wanted to meet again, and he was all for it, because he wants someone to talk professional stuff with. I tried to tell him how risky this was, but he wouldn't listen. And I've been keeping this secret, because he didn't want anyone else to know. He thought it'd be taken the wrong way."

"Yeah, _sure_ it would be taken the wrong way," said Joey derisively. "So, what, Chloe found out?"

"She came into Central Perk last night, quite drunk, looking for him," Rachel said, "because he'd been blowing off her suggestions for dates and she wanted to know what was going on. She actually thought he might be dating me again, because there I was, all dressed up like for a date. But that was to go out with Monica and Phoebe, as I soon made plain to her."

"So she asked Rachel if she knew anything, and Rachel asked if I knew anything, and it just didn't seem right to keep her in the dark," Monica continued. "So I told her. And while we were there she called Ross and made him admit he was seeing Julie, but clearly he was still claiming, it was just to talk dinosaurs. And then she told him they were through."

Joey shook his head. "Can't really blame her. I'd expect to get dumped, if my girlfriend found out I was seeing another woman."

"Yeah, but we all know you wouldn't have been seeing someone else just to talk," said Chandler caustically, then, to Monica, "Do you think Ross is on the level, and these meetings with Julie _are_ just professional?"

"I just don't know," Monica said. "I'd like to think so."

Rachel shook her head vigorously. "I bet Julie sees more in them than that, even if he doesn't. The way you told it to us, Monica, she went to see him when she heard we'd broken up, to ask how he was and all that. If she just wanted to talk dinosaurs, she could have done that any time – even over the phone."

There was a short silence while they all digested this.

Then Chandler said, "Do you think Chloe really means it? They got back together after the beach house business, when for a while they weren't even speaking. She didn't want to break up then."

"But she said it was never the same afterwards," Rachel commented.

"Yeah, I noticed, they kept having little fights," said Monica.

Chandler was looking at Rachel with a surprised expression. "You seem to have been talking with Chloe quite a lot."

"Well, I felt kinda sorry for her," Rachel was saying, when in walked Phoebe.

"Hey, Rachel, how did your evening with Chloe go?" she said breezily.

"Oh oh," said Monica, as Chandler and Joey both looked at Rachel with open suspicion.

"Have you been causing trouble between them?" said Joey rather fiercely. "Was this your way of getting back at Ross, to persuade Chloe to break up with him?"

"I most certainly did not," said Rachel indignantly. "Monica, bear me out here."

"She did encourage Chloe to call him and ask if he was seeing someone else," Monica said, "and she lent her cell phone to do it, but that's as far as it went. Chloe took it from there."

"Okay, later Chloe and I did go off together and have a little session of dumping on Ross and cheering her up," said Rachel defensively, "but she'd made the decision by then."

"You also had a little drinking session," Monica put in, grinning. "You should have seen her first thing this morning, guys."

Rachel glared at her. "They didn't have to know that. Anyway, I didn't need to do or say anything. Chloe was adamant, she was through with Ross, and you can see why. He kept turning down her offers of a date – three times, I remember she said. So she told him, didn't she, Mon, that he was obviously more interested in Julie than her, and frankly I think that's the truth."

Chandler nodded. "Seems clear to me."

"Well, maybe Ross doesn't quite see it like that yet," Monica said thoughtfully, "but I think that may be what's been driving him subconsciously."

"So, are you and Chloe buddies now?" said Phoebe to Rachel.

Rachel shook her head. "In other circumstances, she might have been a friend. We have quite a lot of things in common," her lips twitched, "besides Ross. But Monica made me see, I can't try to make a friend of Chloe if I'm gonna go on hanging out with you guys, which means with Ross." She sounded resigned to this, to Monica's relief.

After another short silence, Joey said, "So, we won't be seeing Chloe around any more. Pity."

"That's all that matters to you, is it?" said Rachel derisively. "Some nice scenery?"

Joey shrugged and grinned. "Pretty much." Then he looked more serious. "You know, after that bust-up at the beach house, I didn't think it could last too much longer."

Chandler sighed. "I guess we have to bow to your superior knowledge of these matters."

"So, you think Ross is going back to Julie?" Phoebe said to Monica.

Monica shook her head. "I don't know what to think."

"I'd bet money," said Rachel. "I'm sure that's what Julie wants." Her tone was rather hostile.

Chandler turned to her, looking alarmed. "You don't sound too happy about that."

"Yeah, have you decided, you want Ross back yourself?" Joey asked.

"Absolutely not," said Rachel firmly. "I don't know how many more times I'm gonna have to say it: I _don't_ want Ross back. I especially don't want him back now, when he clearly thinks it's okay to go behind Chloe's back to see Julie, for whatever reason. At least he didn't do that to Julie, to see me."

"He kissed you," Phoebe pointed out.

Rachel shrugged. "Yeah, but then he got all indecisive, and we never had a date before that business of the list came up." She looked at Chandler pointedly.

"It's all a long time ago, isn't it?" said Chandler, trying to sound relaxed but actually seeming nervous. "No sense in raking up old scores."

Rachel smiled a little. "Yeah, right. Well, I'm sorry to have to say it – and I'm _not_ saying this just because of our break-up and all – but I don't think Ross is behaving very well."

"He did say, it was so great to have someone to discuss his work with," Monica offered, feeling she owed it to Ross to present his position as well as she could. "Even though Chloe would listen to him, he couldn't really discuss it with her. and he does have this need to talk about his work."

Chandler, Joey and Phoebe all groaned in agreement, while Rachel nodded and grunted in a way that suggested she felt some sympathy with this.

"Well, I think Ross has some explaining to do," said Phoebe forthrightly. "I don't wanna pre-judge him or Julie, maybe it is all innocent, but I'd like to hear what he has to say."

Monica could only agree. When Ross did not show up for breakfast, she was filled with foreboding. Was he going to throw a major sulk because she had told Chloe, and Rachel about Julie? But if he expected her to lie on his behalf, well, he would find out there was a limit to what he could expect of her. She had done her best to alert him to the dangers, and felt that he had no one to blame but himself for persisting in this rather sneaky course of action, however innocent it actually was. Now that she knew he had turned Chloe down when she suggested dates, she found his behaviour very suspicious. If he had some big project on and needed all the time he could get, why hadn't she heard about it? He often told her, and everyone else too, if he was working on something big.

Of course, she thought, there was another possibility, that the silence meant he had somehow made it up with Chloe. But unless one called the other after Chloe's night out with Rachel, she didn't see when they would have the opportunity – except this morning, perhaps. Or maybe he was finding it hard to decide between Chloe and Julie, just like he had done between Julie and Rachel. Then she had been all for Rachel. Now she did not know who she would back. Though like Rachel she could not help feeling sorry for Chloe, she might be said to have taken the fatal step, at the beach house, by setting herself against Ross when it was obviously going to upset him considerably. And she had always liked Julie.

She was working in the apartment that day, preparing some food for a contract on Saturday, but she could not concentrate well. She found herself continually looking at the phone as if willing it to ring. Finally, past mid-morning, when she had had her coffee break and was getting back to work, it did so, making her jump and scatter peppercorns all over. Ignoring them, she hurried to the phone and picked up.

"Monica Geller," she said, trying to calm her jittery nerves.

"It's me," said Ross in his "I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed" voice.

"Yeah," said Monica. When Ross said nothing further, she said, "Well, why did you call?"

He sighed, and said heavily, "Well, for one thing I was hoping that maybe you might have an apology for me, for letting out what was meant to be secret."

"Look, I was asked directly," Monica snapped. "Chloe came into Central Perk looking for you, all upset because you wouldn't make a date. She thought you must be seeing someone else; she even thought it was Rachel, for a moment. And she asked Rachel what she knew, and then Rachel asked if I knew anything. What was I gonna do, lie? You shouldn't expect that. Chloe was _not_ happy – actually, she'd been drinking – and I felt sorry for her."

"Yeah, well, okay," Ross said, sounding uneasy.

"You'd better know, everyone's heard about you and Julie now," Monica continued. "Phoebe arrived just after Chloe had called you, and we had to explain why we were all looking so serious, and I thought I'd better tell the guys too, when I told them you and Chloe had broken up. But I was thinking this morning ... Is that true? Or have you tried to make it up with her?"

Ross sighed. "No, I haven't, because, well, to be honest, her breaking up with me was a relief. She was getting so antagonistic, always ready to argue, and I had begun to feel, she's a bit too wild. And, and now I find, she doesn't trust me!" He sounded indignant again.

"Well now, I wonder why that is," said Monica with maximum sarcasm. "I mean, no one should make a big deal out of it, if their boyfriend or girlfriend has this friend they just see for work reasons, right?"

"Oh, very funny," Ross growled. "That situation was totally different."

"The main difference I can see is that you knew all about Mark, but Chloe didn't know about Julie," Monica said tartly. "And Rachel wasn't blowing you off so she could see Mark. It was all that extra work she was doing that kept you apart."

"Well, that's her story," said Ross resentfully. "Anyway, I wasn't blowing Chloe off so I could see Julie. I, I ..." – suddenly he sighed – "I had just got to where I wasn't so eager to see Chloe any more."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear it," said Monica. "I had come to like her. I think we all had, even Rachel. At least, she was sympathetic to her."

"You don't have to keep on about it," said Ross angrily. "Yeah, she was great for a while, and I'm gonna miss her, but I'd rather not hear any more about it right now."

"Okay, I'll lay off," said Monica. "I'm sorry for you too, Ross, don't think I'm not. But I did warn you, you know." After a short silence, seeing that Ross wasn't going to respond, she said, "So, you really aren't dating Julie. But are you going to?"

"I ... don't know," said Ross, sounding uneasy again.

"Do you want to?" Monica pursued.

Ross was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I'd like to. We connect on so many levels."

"How does she feel about all this?"

"She doesn't know yet," Ross said rather heavily. "I guess I ought to tell her. Actually, she's one reason I'm calling. She told me, she'd like to see you guys again; she has some good memories. So, do you think it would be all right if I brought her into Central Perk this evening?"

This was a new one. Monica went for her first reaction, while trying to think through what her feelings were about this. "You know Rachel will almost certainly be there."

"I don't think Julie's gonna find it hard to meet Rachel," Ross said. "She hasn't given the impression that she bears a grudge."

Monica did not express her view that just the fact that Julie didn't show it was no guarantee that she didn't bear a grudge.

"Well, there is another thing that you might want to think about," she said. "This will just add support to any view that you either have been dating Julie, or manoeuvred Chloe into breaking up with you so you could. I mean, don't you see how it's gonna look to everyone? You have meetings with Julie, but you won't make a date with Chloe?"

Ross sighed deeply. "Okay, I'll admit, I have very much liked meeting Julie, and I have been sort of turning it over in my mind, whether I could possibly date her again ... Look, do you think everyone's gonna be asking me about all this? Because if you do, then I won't bring Julie in, because it'll be embarrassing for her, as well as me."

Monica considered this a legitimate point. "I don't think anyone is gonna want to embarrass Julie," she said. "We all liked her – well, all but Rachel, but she had a special reason. I'll pass the word, but don't think I can keep them off your back when she's not there. We have a habit of talking about these things, as you should know."

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Well, see you in Central Perk this evening."

--

When Phoebe arrived in the apartment, late in the afternoon, Monica told her about Ross's call.

"I hope you see, we really can't be questioning Ross about his break-up with Chloe when Julie's there," she said. "Whatever the truth is, it would be very embarrassing for her."

"Hmm," went Phoebe reflectively. "Okay, but I have to say, I'm tending to Rachel's view of things. I mean, Julie knew about Chloe, didn't she?"

Monica had to concede that she did. She did not want to think that Julie had been deliberately manoeuvring to get Ross back, but there were suspicious circumstances. However, she did not discuss this further with Phoebe. Instead, they settled down to dealing with some paperwork to do with the catering business, and then headed for Central Perk. On arrival, they found Ross and Julie already there. Julie smiled at them a little nervously and got to her feet.

"Hey Julie!" cried Phoebe quite cheerfully. "Long time no see."

"Yeah," said Julie. She held her arms out as if she expected to exchange hugs. There was the tiniest of pauses. Then Monica obliged her, and Phoebe followed suit.

"So, what's new with you, Julie?" said Phoebe as they sat down.

"Well," said Julie, "I've been keeping busy, working on publishing my excavation and writing papers based on it, giving a lecture ot two at the U., that sort of thing. That's why I went round to see Ross originally, to get his view on something."

"I bet you'd like his view on all sorts of things," said Phoebe jokingly.

Julie looked embarrassed and even seemed to flush slightly.

"Well, we did sort of hit it off again right away," said Ross.

"Mm ... yeah," said Phoebe rather pointedly.

There was a slightly tense silence, and then Julie said to Monica, "Ross tells me, you and Phoebe are running a catering business. Doing well, I hope?"

"We get all the work we can handle," said Phoebe proudly, at the same time as Monica more cautiously said, "We're getting by." She had a vague feeling that to claim they were doing well was tempting fate, and anyway Phoebe was exaggerating. She personally did not feel that she was working at anywhere near her limit; but then she was not also working at a massaging job, like Phoebe.

Julie looked at her seriously. "Don't you miss working in a popular restaurant?"

Monica had to think about that one for a moment. "I think, maybe I do, sometimes," she said. "But I'll tell you what I don't miss: the hours I had to work, and having the sous chef on my ass every minute – I mean, there's only so many things you can sauté all at once, right? And another thing I don't miss is seeing Paul the Wine Guy around all the time, the rat." She made this comment quite cheerfully.

Julie looked sympathetic. She had heard all about Paul the Wine Guy, the time she and Monica had lunch.

"You're still doing your massage, as well?" she said to Phoebe, who nodded. "And Joey's still acting, and Chandler's doing whatever it is he does with numbers," Julie went on, "but I hear Rachel works at Bloomingdale's now." Her tone turned it into a question.

"Yeah, and she's doing so well," said Phoebe enthusiastically. "She got promoted, and now she's a big executive type like Chandler."

Monica could not help giggling. "Phoebe, you're exaggerating," she said. "Rachel's still very junior, barely an executive at all. She's Assistant Buyer for Junior Miss," she explained to Julie.

"Ah," said Julie. "Well, I'm glad to hear she's making a go of it." She said it in a fairly neutral way, not very enthusiastic but not totally unenthusiastic either. "Clearly, her heart's in it, which it sure wasn't in waitressing," she added lightly.

"Oh, she's changed," said Monica. "She's a lot more serious now."

"Yeah," said Phoebe. "Don't ask her about her work, because you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know." She rolled her eyes.

Julie smiled. "Really?"

Then Chandler and Joey came in, and advanced on the group with loud cries of welcome to Julie; they were forewarned, for Monica had called Chandler to tell him that Julie would be there. They started demanding to know what she had been doing, and telling her what they had been doing, so that for a while the conversation repeated itself. But it moved in other directions eventually, and by the time Rachel showed up it was so animated that she was able to get herself a coffee and take a seat on the edge of the group before anyone realised she was there.

Phoebe was the first to notice her. "Hey, Rachel!" she cried.

"Hi, Pheebs," Rachel replied less exuberantly. "Hi, everybody."

As everyone else greeted Rachel, Julie turned round and seemed to do a double-take. In her grey pantsuit, with her hair clipped back, Rachel looked a serious person and really rather different from the sexily dressed waitress Julie remembered.

"Hi, Rachel," she said, in a tone of surprise.

Rachel seemed to smile slightly at her reaction, and acknowledged her greeting by saying "Julie" in a quiet neutral voice.

--

Author's Note: On which cliff-hanging note I will pause. How are Julie and Rachel going to interact with each other? Will there be some kind of confrontation? You really won't have to wait so long to find out, I promise.


	12. Progress on All Fronts

Chapter 12: Progress On All Frontsf

Author's Note: I know, I know ... I promised to get this up quickly, and here it is, over a month later. Apologies all round. But I wanted this to be _right_, since it is the last major chapter (I will have an Epilogue), and Cress's comments on previous drafts have caused salutary re-thinks.

The Angela Delvecchio episode referred to below happens in 1,5. The Tony's reference comes from 1,15. There is also a quotation from 3,4: see if you can spot it.

--

Monica was somewhat surprised by the curt, dismissive-seeming way in which Rachel greeted Julie, compared with the relative enthusiasm shown by Phoebe and, even more, Chandler and Joey. She remembered that she had failed to warn Rachel that Julie would be there, though Rachel certainly could have thought that she might be.

If Julie was disconcerted she didn't show it, but Ross seemed to take exception to Rachel's apparent attitude.

"There's no need to be like that, Rachel," he said slightly snappishly. "Everyone else has been pleased to see Julie again."

"Did I say I wasn't pleased to see her?" said Rachel, with an air of innocence that Monica thought was clearly faked. "But I admit, it was something of a surprise. After all, you've been keeping her away from us until now."

Julie looked startled by this comment, and Ross reddened. "Well, I didn't want people getting the wrong idea," he said hotly, "like you seem to have done. Which reminds me: just what ideas were you putting into Chloe's head, last night?"

"None that weren't already there," Rachel replied coolly. "She thought you must be seeing someone else, because you kept turning down her offers of dates. She even had this idea, we'd got back together, just for a moment."

"Yes, well, Ross knows all about that," said Monica hastily. "We spoke on the phone earlier," she added in explanation when everyone turned to her.

"Oh, uh, yeah," said Ross. "You, um, you did tell me that." He looked at Rachel rather apologetically. "I'm sorry, Rachel, but ... this is kind of a sore point just now."

"Aha!" said Phoebe. "So, you didn't want to break up with Chloe?" She looked intently at Ross.

Ross looked embarrassed. "It, uh, well, it was a shock, but ... I have to admit, like I told Monica earlier, it was also kind of a relief."

"You've broken up with Chloe?" said Julie, sounding rather surprised.

"I meant to tell you," said Ross, looking even more embarrassed. "It only just happened. There didn't seem to be an appropriate moment."

"H'm." Julie frowned a little. "And what's this about people getting the wrong idea about our meetings?" She turned to Rachel. "Did you think Ross was seeing me behind Chloe's back?"

"Well, he was," Rachel said. "She didn't know about your meetings."

Julie seemed to freeze. Then she turned to Ross slowly, looking rather mad. "So, you didn't want everyone to get the idea we were meeting for more than to talk about our research. But by keeping it secret, you've made sure this is the idea that they have got." She looked around. "I can assure you guys, that is all wrong. We haven't been secretly dating."

"Okay, if you say so," said Phoebe, in a manner that suggested she accepted Julie's assurance.

"Sure," said Chandler.

"I've already accepted that," said Monica.

But Joey and Rachel were silent.

"Joey?" Ross prompted a bit menacingly.

Joey's face had an embarrassed look. "Well, I guess, if you say so ... but I don't understand how Ross could be seeing you and not want to date you."

Julie smiled. "Thank you, Joey." Then she focused on Rachel, and the smile disappeared. "Rachel, I hope you don't believe I'm lying."

"About not dating? No," said Rachel calmly. "I'm prepared to believe that nothing actually happened at these meetings. But, Julie, be honest with us here. Can you put your hand on your heart and swear, you didn't go round to see Ross again, after you heard we'd broken up, in the hope that you might start over with him – and that's why you were happy to go on meeting him, even though you knew he had a girlfriend?"

There was a pregnant silence. Julie had flushed. She looked round and saw that all the others were waiting to see how she would reply. She turned again to Rachel, and suddenly anger showed in her face.

"Oh, you've gotten very smart, haven't you, since you got yourself a proper job," she snapped. "Okay, yeah, a friend in the Museum told me, when I came back from China, that you two had broken up, and I thought, that has to hurt Ross a lot, given everything he said to me about how you had been his dream since ninth grade. I went to see him mainly out of sympathy – but if I thought, might there be a chance of getting back together with him, why the hell shouldn't I?" She paused, and then said in a calmer voice, "Can't you understand how it feels, breaking up when you thought you had established a really good relationship, and if you didn't want the break-up, how you'd take a chance to make up again?"

It was plain that Julie was speaking generally, but of course this was bound to make everyone think of the break-up between Ross and Rachel. Monica gasped before she could stop herself, Phoebe bit off an exclamation, and Joey muttered "Wow!" Julie herself seemed to realise how what she had said could be taken, and put a hand to her mouth, gazing big-eyed in apparent apology at Rachel.

Rachel's expression did not change, although she flushed slightly, and took a moment to speak. "Yes," she said in quite a firm voice, "I can certainly understand that." She nodded her head at Julie as if conceding a point, then turned to Ross.

"Okay, your meetings were innocent, on the surface. But I think you, as well as Julie, wanted to go on with them for more than professional reasons, and you should just admit it."

Ross was looking rather mad. "I did not break up with Chloe because of Julie. In fact, I didn't break up with her at all; she broke up with me!"

"Because you kept putting her off," said Rachel. "And you said before, it was kind of a relief. So, by putting her off, weren't you setting her up? Were you doing that guy thing, where you act mean and distant to get us to break up with you?" She nodded at Monica, the originator of the phrase.

"Oh jeez, not that again," Joey muttered.

Ross looked cornered. "I don't see why you should care," he said, angrily defensive.

"I came to like her," said Rachel. "We all did, didn't we?" She looked round the group, who gave nods and murmurs of agreement, though seeming uneasy at the direction of the conversation.

"She was one hell of a poker player," Phoebe said reminiscently. "So, Ross, what was it all about, really?"

Ross sighed. "All right," he said much more quietly. "Here's how it was. You know we were having problems, after the beach house trip?"

The others nodded.

"Well, we kept having these little fights, often about things that shouldn't matter. It was like she would disagree with me for the hell of it. And I started to feel, I didn't want to be dating her just for the sake of having someone to date. And then along came Julie, and I had such good memories of her, and I enjoyed meeting with her again and wanted to go on, and she was happy to go on meeting, though she knew about Chloe. I wasn't truly cheating on Chloe, but ... I guess you could say it was emotional cheating." His expression seemed to plead for understanding.

Before anyone could speak, he burst into speech again, sounding more emotional. "I know this doesn't sound too good, but ... you think it's been easy for me, any of this – Julie, Rachel, Chloe? It's been _hell_, every time. I didn't _want_ things to go wrong between me and Chloe, but – "

"That's okay, Ross," Phoebe interrupted. "Calm down. We understand."

"Yes," said Monica, eager for this to be over, and seeing an opportunity. "We all understand, don't we, guys?" She looked pleadingly at Chandler and Joey.

"Sure," said Chandler. "We've all made mistakes, and done things that were, well, a bit questionable, because we were being pulled different ways."

"You mean, like how you kept on dating and dumping Janice?" said Joey, with heavy irony. "Or maybe you mean dating that hot Aurora, who was married."

Chandler seemed momentarily at a loss for a reply, but rallied. "Well, no, I was thinking of Angela Delvecchio, and you using Monica to get her boyfriend Bob away from her. And then, after all that, you didn't go on with her."

"Well, okay," said Joey, accepting the point but not showing any obvious repentance. He flashed his rakish grin. "But hey, don't they say, all's fair in love and war?"

There was silence for a moment. Then Rachel made a bursting noise that turned into laughter.

"Oh Joey, Joey!" she cried, shaking her head. "Don't ever change!"

Monica, who had been feeling embarrassed at this reminder of an undoubtedly questionable moment in her past, started to giggle – Rachel's laugh was infectious – and then one by one they all joined in, even Julie – all except Joey, who stared at them in bemusement.

"Well, I'm the better for that," said Julie, producing a tissue and wiping her eyes. "Now, I want to say something to you all, just in case you might be thinking this. I knew that Ross was having girlfriend problems, but we did not discuss them. We did not talk about Chloe."

"Okay, Julie," said Rachel, now seeming quite relaxed. "I'm happy to accept that." She sounded sincere.

"Yeah, sure, Julie," said Phoebe.

Monica, Chandler and Joey agreed, and Julie seemed to relax.

"Okay," said Monica, seizing the initiative, "anyone got any plans for the evening?"

"Yeah," said Rachel. "I've been working my ass off today and I'm hungry. Let's go out somewhere."

"Huh," went Joey. "You ready to pay, out of the big money you make from your oh-so-important job?" He seemed to feel resentment towards Rachel, perhaps thinking that somehow she had set him up to be laughed at.

Suddenly Rachel felt a little reckless. Despite her complaints, she was actually enjoying her job a lot.

"Hell, why not?" she said. "My credit card can stand the pain. Ross, Julie, you're invited too, if you want – but I'll understand if you want to go off on your own."

They both looked surprised. Julie was the one who spoke first.

"Thank you, Rachel. That's very generous of you."

Rachel looked just a little embarrassed. "Well, I don't want you to think I was out to start some kind of feud ..."

"I think we should join the others," Julie said to Ross decisively. "We can talk later."

"Okay," said Ross, looking considerably more cheerful.

Monica felt extremely relieved that Rachel had seen potential danger in the situation that she was creating and drawn back, relieving the tension further by a generous impulse.

"I know what," she said. "We should honour the occasion of welcoming Julie back with a Chinese meal."

Julie groaned "Oy" and rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry if you really have a hankering for Chinese, Monica, but honestly I'd prefer anything but that. I've had all the Chinese food I can stand for a while, what with the time I was actually in China and then a homecoming feast from my family and visits to relatives ... I grew up in New York, remember."

"Okay, okay," said Monica hastily. "Any other ideas, guys?"

"How about Tony's?" said Joey. "They have great steaks there."

"Yeah, great _big_ steaks," said Chandler in a tone of derision. "I remember you telling us, how you got it free if you could eat a 32-ouncer. You're in the mood for a challenge, is that it?"

Joey grinned. "Well, I'm not saying I'd go for the big one, but ..." He made expansive gestures.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry enough to eat a steak," said Rachel, "but what's Pheebs gonna eat? They do anything vegetarian there, Joey?"

"Er, well, they have onion rings," said Joey uncertainly, "and fries, of course."

Rachel couldn't help it. Somehow she was in the mood to see the humour in the mixture of confidence and ignorance with which Joey approached the world. For a few moments she giggled helplessly, while others snickered or grinned. Trying to recover, she caught Julie's eyes, and saw them brimming with amusement.

"What was that place we went to for lunch, Monica?" Julie said, with only a slight tremor in her voice. "That had a wide range, and it was good."

Monica froze and looked at Rachel nervously, afraid this might ruin the good mood developing. But Rachel was smiling gently.

"It's over, Mon," she said. "It really is all over."

--

After that, Julie was welcomed by everyone when she visited Central Perk, although she was not there as often as some, claiming that she really needed to put in a lot of work to get her excavation published. Relations between her and Rachel steadily improved, to the point where Rachel was even asking for news of progress in her writing work.

Monica decided to comment on this to Rachel, one time when they were alone in the apartment.

"You've certainly changed in your attitude to Julie," she said.

"Well, here's this one woman, our age, and she's actually achieved something," Rachel said. "I'm impressed. She's modest about it, says she's not discovered anything with her excavation that's startlingly new, but still ... she planned the whole thing, she got results, and now she's writing it up in a totally organised way. I'd like to feel that some day I could make some contribution to fashion that was really my own work."

"I thought you found all that stuff boring," Monica said.

Rachel sighed, and nodded. "Even Julie can't make it very interesting, though she's better than Ross. The way he kept talking about it, I found it mind-erodingly tedious most of the time. You know," – she looked at Monica seriously – "I think that would have become a problem between us in time, if we'd stayed together. I couldn't really respect his work – and he didn't respect mine, either." She grinned. "From that point of view, Julie is Ross's ideal date; she actually wants to talk dinosaurs."

"Do you know if they are dating yet?" Monica asked.

"I don't _know_," said Rachel. "But that would be my guess. But they both seem shy about admitting it, though no one would bat an eyelid now."

"Well, you did kind of put them on the spot," said Monica. "That might make them feel shy about it."

"Okay, maybe I did," said Rachel, "and I could see that it was uncomfortable at the time, but it chased a lot of stuff out in the open, didn't it? After that, we had no reason to go around wondering if Julie turned Ross against Chloe, or if they were dating secretly, all that. And Julie's so friendly, I'm sure she's forgiven me."

As it happened, the next time they gathered in Central Perk, Ross put on a portentously solemn expression and knocked on the table when Rachel arrived, last as she often was.

"Julie and I have something to tell you," he intoned. "We are now officially dating again."

"Well, duh!" said Joey. "It's taken you this long to start?" He shook his head.

"Not everyone is as quick off the mark as you, Joey," Monica said a little severely. "And maybe that's a good thing, because you're just as quick dumping them as you are picking them up."

"Aw, don't be mean to poor Joey!" said Phoebe, leaning over to ruffle his hair. "He's so brand new, he has inherited no, like, instinctual knowledge from his previous lives, and so he's still learning how people should behave to each other."

"If you can show me anything useful that Joey's learned – or anything at all, come to that – I shall be glad to hear it," Chandler said sourly.

"Hey hey hey!" said Rachel. "That was a bit below the belt. What's eating you, Chandler?"

Chandler pulled a face. "My goddamn job."

"Aw, honey, is it that bad?" she said sympathetically. "Anything I can do?" She turned to Julie. "I shall always be grateful to Chandler for coaching me to get the job I now have."

"My real reason for advising Rachel," Chandler said heavily, "was to have someone to bitch with about working in a big corporation – but Rachel actually seems to like it."

Rachel smiled. "It's still new to me. Maybe I'll get jaded in time."

"You have an advantage over Chandler," Ross pointed out. "You're dealing with real things. It must be easier to be enthusiastic about actual clothes that people wear than about numbers."

"Why, thank you, Ross," said Rachel, looking at him in pleased surprise.

Ross then turned to Chandler. "I guess your work is very important to the workings of the corporation."

But he did not say it as if he truly believed it, and Chandler replied, with clear irony, "I wish I could share your belief. Me, half the time I think it's a meaningless ritual."

"Only half?" said Julie, eyes twinkling. "Well, let me tell you, the kind of job Ross and I do also has _very_ dull moments, and I'll bet Rachel sometimes wishes the day would hurry up and finish."

"Too true," said Rachel. "But Chandler's bound to win if we get into competing over how boring our jobs are. He's had so much practice at that game."

This dig at Chandler received general appreciation, and then Joey, who was evidently hungry, introduced the topic of what food they would eat that night. But Rachel did not forget the conversation, for she had been struck by how truly disgruntled Chandler seemed, and she did some thinking about how to help him.

A few days later, she said to Chandler over lunch, which they sometimes took together, "Didn't you want to write, once?"

He nodded, looking gloomy. "I did. But ... I never have the time, these days ..."

"Make the time," she said emphatically. "You don't have to hang about with us in Central Perk so much."

"That would just produce little bits of time," he said. "For writing, you ideally need long uninterrupted stretches, in which you can work up enough guilt to stop fooling around and actually start trying to put words on paper." He grinned at her.

"Well, all right," she said, and thought a bit. "You said a while ago you had a lot saved up? Was that really true?"

"Well, it's not something I like to talk about," he said, "but I do have savings, yeah, and money from my mom. What are you suggesting?"

"Junk your job, live off your savings for a while, and concentrate on writing," she said. "Maybe you better decide first what you want to write, and sketch out some kind of plan. You can do that in bits of spare time, surely. _Then_ junk the job, and refuse to go back no matter what they offer you. Because it's draining you, isn't it? You never seem very happy now."

"That could have something to do with not having a date," he said, trying for lightheartedness again but, to her eyes, failing dismally.

"How are you gonna get a date if you give off this defeatist vibe all the time?" she said emphatically, pointing her fork at him. "Another thing: before you jump, work out a budget, to see how long your money will support you. Maybe you could borrow from your mom, and get advice about writing from her too."

Chandler shuddered theatrically. "I certainly don't want to write anything like what she writes."

"Yeah, but general stuff about being a writer, how to pace yourself, how to plan," said Rachel impatiently. "And she could maybe put you in touch with an agent, who could give you advice about publishing what you want to write. I tell you, Chandler, you should get off your fat ass and give it a go!" She banged her free fist on the table, making him and people at neighbouring tables jump.

"Now look what you've done," he said, looking down. "I have sun-dried tomato all over my pants." But he was grinning. "You're a good motivator."

"You and Joey advised me to get out of waitressing," said Rachel, smiling at him. "And it turned out all right, in the end. Returning the favour seems the least I can do."

"Seriously, you are inspiring me to want to have a go," he said. "So, is there anything I can do for you in exchange?"

Rachel studied him for a moment. "Well, actually there is something ..."

--

"I can hardly believe it," Chandler was saying to his friends, in considerable excitement. "There I was at this party, talking to this agent guy my mom gave me an introduction to, and after a while he said he thought I might have a knack for fast-paced, witty dialogue, and why didn't I try writing for a TV show, say a sitcom or anything that has wisecracks along the way. He actually thought I could do it! So, I'm gonna pick my show and try it."

"Why don't you write your own show?" said Joey.

"It would take a hell of a lot of work," Chandler said. "But with something like, say, ER – though I wouldn't be aiming that high to start with – you have all these great characters already developed for you. If I just sat down and tried to come up with a situation and characters, likely it would be us." He grinned.

"Oh, I don't think we'd be very funny, would we?" said Ross a bit pompously.

Chandler caught Monica's eye and they both collapsed in laughter, in which Phoebe and Julie joined, while Ross and Joey just looked at them in puzzlement.

"Hi guys," said Rachel as she bustled into the coffee shop. "What's so funny?"

"We are," said Chandler, "but Ross and Joey don't seem to realise it. So, how did things go with Patrick?"

"Just what I was looking for!" said Rachel enthusiastically. "He doesn't wanna be serious, he just wants a good time, and so do I!" She put down her briefcase on the table and sang, "Girls just wanna have fu-un, girls just wanna have fun!" rather off-key as she danced a few steps, swinging her hips and clicking her fingers over her head.

"You go, girl!" cried Phoebe exuberantly.

"Yay Rachel!" cried Julie, grinning.

But Ross looked worried, and as Rachel stopped dancing he said, "You're saying, you don't want a relationship?"

Rachel turned to him and smiled. "Not right now," she said firmly. "With all the time I'm putting into my job, I don't have enough spare for a guy who actually wants a 'meaningful relationship'." She gave the words inverted commas in the air. "But I do want someone to date, and Patrick will do just fine. So, Chandler, you did good. Now, what's the word on the writing?"

"I just finished telling the others," said Chandler. "Let's go over there so I don't bore them with repeats."

Monica watched them go, and it struck her, as they bent their heads together, both equally enthusiastic about this writing project, not just how lively Rachel had become again, after a long period of being first depressed, then quiet and resigned, but how excited Chandler seemed able to get now, in a way that it was difficult to remember him being for a very long time. They look so close, she thought, and felt a tiny pang of jealousy. She had always thought of Chandler as her special male friend, from the days when they began in New York and she, Ross and Chandler formed the core of a group, to which Phoebe and later Joey attached themselves, while others like Kip belonged for a while, then disappeared. Rachel was a newbie by comparison.

"So, you're gonna do it?" Rachel cried loudly, attracting the others' attention.

"Yup," said Chandler equally excitedly. They slapped palms, then turned to their friends.

"I've decided, I really am gonna dump my job, and no argument," Chandler said. "I've got the means to take a break for a while and really put some effort into trying to write. Of course, I won't need just time, but freedom from distractions." He looked meaningfully at Joey, which caused everyone else to look at Joey.

"Hey, what did I do?" said Joey plaintively. "You think I'd be all the time distracting Chandler when he was trying to write?"

"In a word, yes," said Rachel firmly. "You might not mean to, but you would, just by being around your apartment." She turned to Chandler. "You really ought to find somewhere to write – maybe a library."

He nodded. "I'll have to think about that. Well, anyway, I'm gonna have to work out my notice, so I can give that some thought."

"Chandler, why don't you use our apartment?" said Monica. "Now that I have a job, I'm not gonna be in it much during the day, and then Joey could hang out in yours if he's around, though he'd have to promise not to come across and bother you."

She spoke proudly of her job, pleased at having landed the position of head chef of a small restaurant, Allesandro's, though it was by the sheerest fluke. A critical review in The Village Voice had brought a knee-jerk response from the proprietor, who had equally impulsively hired her when she demonstrated that she knew what she was talking about. Problems with the staff, whom she had found it difficult to confront, had been quickly resolved when she followed Julie's advice to simply remind them, without making a big deal out of it, that as head chef she had the power to hire and fire. Their behaviour had improved markedly.

"That's not a bad idea," said Chandler, smiling at her, "but you would have to promise not to distract me if you do come home."

His smile made her feel suddenly flustered. Did he mean something special by that? It was almost like he was flirting with her.

"Oh, I can be very quiet," she said. "You'll hardly notice I'm there."

His smile grew into a grin. "I'd always notice if you were there," he said.

"Ooh, _Chandler_!" said Rachel, giggling. "You'll have to watch this guy, Mon. Now he's getting off his butt and actually deciding to do things, who knows, he may come right out and ask you for a date!"

"I can't date a guy who peed on my leg!" Monica responded automatically, but in her head she was not so sure. This was a new, more confident-seeming Chandler, who was actively taking his life in hand. She would be interested to see how this changed him.


	13. Epilogue: Four Months Later

Have Chandler set Rachel up with Patrick, they have a light-hearted but, for Rachel, enjoyable affair: she's still not ready to be serious about anybody, Gavin is the first she feels serious about

Epilogue: Four Months Later

Author's Note: Okay, here it is, the end of this cycle, with thanks to all my readers and reviewers and especially to Cress, my highly valued, almost indispensable critic (though she hasn't seen this).

I'm bringing in a few personalities from much further on in the series, as those familiar with the later seasons will realise. But I shall let you, the readers, imagine how things might develop in their new relationships and careers.

--

"I wonder where she is," said Monica to Phoebe in a worried way. Had Rachel found that, after all, she wasn't over Ross entirely and couldn't bring herself to attend the party to celebrate his engagement to Julie? It seemed unlikely on the face of it. Rachel had received the invitation with every appearance of pleasure, had stated firmly that she would attend and bring a date, and had not shown the remotest hint of unhappiness at the thought of Ross marrying someone else. And yet ... it was so hard for Monica to believe that all the love which Rachel had once felt for Ross, and had spoken of to Monica often enough, was completely gone.

"You thinking she's gonna chicken out, she can't face it?" Phoebe asked.

"She loved him so much once," Monica said quietly.

"Yeah, once," said Phoebe. "But could that love survive what he put her through? And surely she would have shown it some way, if she was unhappy about him getting engaged to Julie. But she's been as cheerful and full of life as ever."

"She's not seeing Patrick any more," Monica said. "Do you think that means anything?"

Phoebe chuckled. "Well, here I know something you don't. She told me in Central Perk a few nights ago, when you were still at your restaurant: they stopped dating, because he was beginning to feel serious interest in someone else. But she didn't seem downhearted, said it was a totally friendly break-up, they'd, like, had a good run, and – hey, isn't that her now?"

"Yeah!" said Monica, happy to have all her doubts dispelled in a moment. "And, wow, who is that _gorgeous _guy with her?"

"Let's go find out," said Phoebe decisively.

They hurried over to where Rachel and her guest were moving on after being welcomed by Ross and Julie.

Rachel saw them coming, and beamed at them. "Hey guys!" she said. "Meet my date, Gavin Mitchell. Gavin, these are Monica, Ross's sister, and Phoebe Buffay, my best friends in the whole world." Monica thought she detected a special sparkle in her eyes.

Gavin was middling-sized, barely taller than Phoebe, with a rather aquiline face, heavy eyebrows, and a shock of fairly short dark hair. He smiled and said, "Pleased to meet you," as he shook hands. "Rachel has already told me quite a bit about you." There was a definite twinkle in his eyes.

"So, this isn't your first date?" said Phoebe shrewdly.

Rachel and Gavin looked at each other.

"It depends what you call a date," said Rachel. "We met at this lecture three days ago. Gavin works at Ralph Lauren, and they'd sent him along to see if anything useful would be said. A bunch of us went for a drink afterwards and, well, Gavin and I hit it off."

"We have a lot in common," said Gavin, smiling at her, "including ambition and, um, a healthy interest in the opposite sex."

"Hey, that's great," said Phoebe enthusiastically. "The way Rachel tells it, straight guys are kinda hard to come across in your business."

"Now, Phoebe," said Rachel lightly. "If you say things like that, you might scare Gavin off."

Gavin laughed. "Well, it didn't scare me that you invited me to an engagement party, though that might make some men antsy."

"You could hardly be thinking I had some deep designs on you, when we've only just met," said Rachel in a teasing way.

"You don't have any designs on me?" said Gavin in an equally teasing manner. "That's a pity."

"Oh, I guess I could come up with some," said Rachel, now openly flirtatious.

The glances between them suggested to Monica that, for both of them, this was more than just a date for the evening; it was the start of a relationship.

"Fine," said Gavin easily. "Now, can we investigate the drinks and the buffet? I'm starving."

"Yeah, we'd better get there before Joey's eaten all the food," said Rachel. "He's another of my great friends. I must introduce to him."

"I'm feeling hungry too," said Phoebe. "You coming, Mon?"

Looking around, Monica had just caught sight of her mother waving at her.

"I think mom wants a word," she said. "I'll join you later."

"Monica dear, how are you?" said her mother, giving her quite a warm hug. "I understand from Ross that you helped out a good deal with the buffet."

Monica grinned. "Well, the prices their caterers were wanting to charge for some items were simply outrageous. I could get them done in Allesandro's for half the cost, and at better quality too."

"I'm sure you could," said her mother, with clear approval in her tone. "You seem to be making a real success of your job there."

"We're working well together now," said Monica proudly. "I was glad to help out with the buffet and repay Julie for the advice she gave me on how to handle my staff. She's had experience, you know, running an excavation."

"M'm," went her mother, now sounding slightly uncertain. "How well do you know Julie? Do you think she's right for Ross? I know, she works in the same field, but ... well, I hardly know anything of her, compared with Rachel." She sighed. "I must confess, I did have hopes there."

"So did I," said Monica. "So did we all. But you know what I think, mom? It was all very romantic, what with her having been Ross's crush in high school and all, but, well, they have very different personalities."

"Don't you think they complemented each other?" said her mother. "Opposites attract, as they say."

"Maybe," said Monica, "but you know what Rachel told me, a good while after the break-up. She thought they might not have lasted, because she found his work so boring that she couldn't respect it, and she didn't think he respected her job either. That's no foundation for a lasting relationship."

"M'm, that is a point," said her mother thoughtfully.

"And another thing," said Monica, bringing out for the first time thoughts that she had been turning over in her mind for some time. "Ross took the break-up with Carol very hard. I think that whoever was his first serious girlfriend after that, he would have been uncertain of her, and so he would be subconsciously inclined to be possessive and even mistrustful. When they dated first, Julie was not with him long enough for this to show up, so Rachel got the full force of it. As soon as she got the Bloomingdale's job, it was like he couldn't bear her to have a part of her life that he wasn't involved in, that he couldn't check up on. But it's like he's got all that out of his system now. Julie keeps going off to consult other scholars, or give lectures on her excavation, things like that, and this doesn't seem to bother Ross one bit, because he understands her work and why she needs to do this. So, I think they will fit together very well."

"Well argued," said her mother admiringly. "How mature you've become, dear. Yes, maybe he is best with his own kind. And who is that with Rachel?"

"Oh, he's in fashion too," Monica said. "He works at Ralph Lauren. They met at a lecture."

"Do you think that might turn into something serious?" said her mother. "I'd like to hear of Rachel finding someone."

"I think so," said Monica, "going by the way they were looking at each other."

"And how about you?" said her mother. "Have you heard from Don, since he went back to Britain?" Her tone was lightly insinuating.

"Oh yes," said Monica enthusiastically. Her meeting with Don had been one of the highpoints of her life recently. A British importer of wine and cheese, he had enjoyed a meal at Allesandro's so much that he had asked to compliment the chef personally. They had taken to each other at once, and dated constantly while he was in New York. She had even invited him to meet her parents over dinner, and the evening had gone very well.

"He's invited me to visit him at his villa in the Loire valley," she said, "and I'd really like to go. You know I've never been to Europe – and I haven't had a real holiday since I don't know when."

"You should certainly go," said her mother firmly. "Perhaps you can even pick up some French recipes and cooking tips. But if you do that, you should buy some new clothes. Let's have a look round the shops soon. Don't worry about cost; your father and I will be happy to help out."

Monica knew only too well that she and her mother would disagree strongly about suitable clothes, but she was too happy to be on such good terms with her now to put her off. The comments made by Don, an obviously mature man, on her work at Allesandro's had impressed her mother considerably, along with the fact that he was clearly very attracted to her.

"Sure, mom," she said. "Let's compare diaries. But first, I think I'd like to get something to eat."

"Of course, of course," said her mother. "Did you cook the salmon? It's excellent."

Very gratified, Monica admitted that she had indeed prepared the salmon. As they made their way to the buffet, her mother asked, "How are the others? How's Chandler's writing career?"

Monica thought for a moment. "Promising, is the best word. He hasn't actually signed any contracts yet, but he has produced work that people are interested in. He's even sold one short article – to the company magazine of his old employers, would you believe?"

Her mother laughed. "Have they stopped trying to lure him back?"

Monica laughed too. "I think they've given up now. But they were so persistent for a while. They must have valued what he did more than he thought, or maybe they just liked having him around making jokes. But this time he seems absolutely firm about not going back. He's changed a bit, you know. He's much more decisive."

"Good, good," said her mother rather uninterestedly. "But somehow I can't imagine that Phoebe and Joey will have changed."

"No, they're going on just like before," said Monica in an affectionate tone. "It'll take something really major to change them."

As they approached the buffet, they saw Ross and Julie talking to Gavin and Rachel. Ross had his arm around Julie's waist, while Gavin and Rachel were standing very close together. Both Ross and Rachel were looking so relaxed and cheerful, clearly not at all uneasy in each other's company, that Monica's eyes pricked a little. Maybe it was all for the best, she thought. Maybe it's better that they went through all the pain of a break-up now, rather than staying together for a long time, even marrying, before finally, painfully, having to accept that at bottom they were incompatible. Of course, some would say that it need never happen like that. But there was only so much that passionate love could overcome. You needed to have basic agreement on priorities in life, and she wasn't at all sure that Ross and Rachel did, or that they would be able to compromise over what mattered very deeply to them. She and Richard had found that out, for all their love.

Now, with Don, she thought happily, it was a different matter. thinking of all the delicious food she would get the opportunity to eat in France, especially the cheese,stimulated her tastebuds mightily. Just for once she decided to indulge the fat girl she had been by helping herself lavishly from the buffet.

Her mother nodded approvingly as she piled her plate high. "If I have one criticism, Monica dear, it's that maybe you've become just a trifle thin," she said. "It's that demanding job of yours, I expect. But with your active lifestyle, you can afford to eat a little more. Don will be disappointed if you don't take the opportunities you'll have in France."

She can't _quite_ give up the habit of criticism, Monica thought, but at least it's mixed in with approval and support now. Aloud, she said, "Believe me, mom, I aim to make full use of all opportunities that come my way."


End file.
